Finland hosts record number refugees last year due to Russia´s Ukraine invasion

The number of refugees within the scope of reception services increased to a record-breaking level in Finland during 2022, according to reception system monitoring report 2022 published by the Finnish Immigration Service (Migri).

At the beginning of the year, their number was about 5,000 and at the end of the year the number was about 43,500, said Migri in a press release on Tuesday, quoting the report.

Russia’s war of aggression in Ukraine, which started in late February 2022, and the practically immediate major influx of Ukrainian refugees had a significant impact on the operation of the reception system.

“The year 2022 was highly exceptional in the context of the Finnish reception system and operations. The quick, large-scale influx of Ukrainians fleeing the war posed unprecedented challenges to the system. As a result, errors also happened and they were resolved together. From our point of view, reception centre operations as a whole developed well last year,” said Elina Nurmi, Director of the Reception Unit of Migri.

Monitoring focused especially on directing the dozens of new reception centres that started operating on a short notice, directing the employees of these reception centres and supporting the launch of operations.

According to the Finnish Immigration Service’s recent reception system monitoring report, the year 2022 was very exceptional and extraordinary from the perspective of the reception system.

At the end of 2022, the reception centre capacity had grown more than eightfold when compared to the beginning of the year.

Altogether 85 new reception centres had been established and at the end of the year, there were a total of 112 reception centres in operation.

Many new reception centres were established very quickly under exceptional circumstances. During the year, these reception centres were provided with a lot of operational guidance and training regarding the basics of reception centre operations and services.

“Monitoring detected a lot of good, high-quality operations but also deficiencies and operations that are still developing. The general impression was that reception centres worked actively to take control of the exceptional situation and to arrange services and operations quickly,” said Olli Snellman, Head of Section at the Reception Unit of Migri.

During the year, altogether 24 complaints related to reception centre operations were submitted to the Migri The complaints were related to the availability of health care services and referral to care, accommodation arrangements, the quality of food, transport connections to and from the reception centre, access to social services, the arrangement of work and study activities as well as matters related to the reception allowance.

In spring 2022, there were delays in the processing of reception allowances as more than 20,000 new refugees entered the system over the course of two months.

The Migri investigated the complaints and reception centres amended their operations as necessary according to the Finnish Immigration Service’s instructions.