175 asylum seekers relocated to Finland from Mediterranean

The relocation of all the 175 asylum seekers from the Mediterranean region to Finland, which started in May this year has been completed this month, said the Finnish Immigration Service (Migri) in a press release on Wednesday.

Out of the asylum seekers, 55 were relocated from Cyprus, and 30 asylum seekers were relocated from Greece, Italy, Malta and Spain.

About 30% of the asylum seekers relocated to Finland are Afghan citizens, 22% Syrians and 15% Somalians while the rest of them represent ten different nationalities.

About 85% of them arrived in Finland by the end of August, and the transfers were completed on December 14.

Like all asylum applications, the applications submitted by the relocated asylum seekers will be processed individually by the Migri.

So far, the Migri has made a few decisions on the asylum applications submitted by the relocated asylum seekers. Most of the decisions have been positive, and some decisions have been negative.

On 15 December 2022, the government decided that Finland would take up to 175 asylum seekers from the Mediterranean region to ease the pressure on the reception systems in the EU Member States in the Mediterranean.

According to the Government’s decision, it had to be likely that the relocated asylum seekers are in need of international protection. Priority was given to vulnerable persons, such as unaccompanied minors, single-parent families and persons with illnesses or disabilities.

The share of men among the relocated persons is 59% and the share of women is 41%. One per cent of the relocated asylum seekers are 66 years old or older, while 30% are aged 0–13, 6% are aged 14–17, 51% are aged 18–35 and 12% are aged 35–65.

About half of the asylum seekers have arrived as a family, and half of them have arrived alone.

“More than 4,000 first asylum applications have been submitted in Finland this year, and less than five per cent of the applications have been submitted by the asylum seekers relocated from the Mediterranean region. Their applications have not been given priority unless the applicant is, for example, a minor or ill,” said Mikko Montin, Head of Section at the Asylum Unit.