New law to allow EUAA to support refugee handling

The government has taken an initiative to bring amendments to the Aliens Act with the provisions for enabling Finland to make use of the support from the European Union Agency for Asylum (EUAA) as smoothly as possible in the event of a mass influx of migrants.

The government submitted the proposal on the amendments to Parliament on Thursday, said the Ministry of the Interior in a press release.

As per the proposed amendments, if necessary, the EUAA could be asked to send support teams consisting of EUAA staff members and officials from other EU countries to Finland.

The submission of the request would be decided at the government plenary session. The Finnish Immigration Service (Migri) would prepare an action plan with the Executive Director of the EUAA and act as the national contact point for the support teams.

The EUAA replaced the European Asylum Support Office (EASO) in January 2022, when the relevant EU Regulation entered into force. The Regulation is directly applicable in Finland. In order for its application to be as effective as possible, provisions on the parties responsible for submitting and coordinating the request for support are laid down nationally.

Similarly, the members of the support teams must have the power and possibilities to provide assistance in Finland. The Aliens Act and the act on migration authorities’ processing of personal data would be amended so that the support team members could participate in asylum investigations and have access to the necessary information.

This government proposal is the second part of a project launched by the Ministry of the Interior in 2020 aimed at drafting legislative amendments to prepare for a possible mass influx of migrants. The need for change has been identified in the development work that the authorities have been carrying out since 2015.

Based on comments received, the legislative package of the project has been divided into three separate entities. The first one was an amendment to the reception act that entered into force on 1 January 2022. The Migri now has central responsibility for preparedness planning concerning the organisation of reception services in the event of a mass influx of migrants. The third one is related to the use of supplementary personnel in detention units.

A mass influx of migrants is a situation in which reception centres for asylum seekers, including additional accommodation, are reaching maximum capacity and the capacity needs to be further expanded, as there is a constant influx of new migrants. Such a situation may arise gradually or abruptly, because of the massive displacement of people from a country towards Finland, for example.

A mass influx of migrants may also be facilitated. At the turn of 2021–2022, a working group led by the Ministry of the Interior evaluated the legislation of the Ministry’s branch of government and the need to amend it to prepare for hybrid influence activities that exploit migration.

This was mainly due to the actions of Belarus, which were targeted against Poland, Latvia and Lithuania in autumn 2021. Based on the assessment, amendments could be made to the Aliens Act, the reception act and the Border Guard Act that would be useful in responding to hybrid influence activities and managing the situation.