Finland to take 500 quota refugees in 2025

Finland will receive 500 refugees under the refugee quota in 2025, said a government press release on Thursday.

The government at a meeting decided that the country will receive 150 Afghan refugees from Iran, 120 Congolese refugees from Rwanda, 100 Syrian refugees from Turkey and 50 Venezuelan refugees from Peru under next year's refugee quota.

In addition, Finland will receive 30 refugees who have been evacuated from Libya to Rwanda and 50 persons from any nationality or region who require evacuation in emergency cases.

The decision signifies a reversal in the policy as local media reported in the autumn that Interior Minister Mari Rantanen had instructed the ministry officials to prepare the draft reducing quota refugees from Muslim-majority countries, while increasing the quota for Christian-majority nations.

This was motivated by suspicions surrounding the previous preparation, said the press release.

The preparation of the previous allocation decision has ended at the Ministry of the Interior, but the Non-Discrimination Ombudsman will continue to investigate the matter as the move would likely be discriminatory on religious grounds.

The Ministry of the Interior will not comment on the matter pending in the official proceedings.

A final decision on the refugee quota will be made at the same time as Parliament approves the Budget for 2025 in December.

The preparation of a decision on the allocation was started again on 22 November.

In autumn 2023, Finland submitted to the European Commission a preliminary notification of which refugee groups it would receive under the 2024 and 2025 quotas in the EU's two-year resettlement programme.

The proposal for the decision on the allocation of the refugee quota was prepared by the Ministry of the Interior in cooperation with the Ministry of Economic Affairs and Employment and the Ministry for Foreign Affairs.

The Finnish Immigration Service and the Finnish Security and Intelligence Service were also consulted during the preparation.

As usual, the allocation of places in the quota was subject to consideration and a decision at the national level.

The work was based on a new proposal on the reception of quota refugees submitted to Finland by the UN Refugee Agency UNHCR.

On 22 November, the Ministry of the Interior asked the UNHCR to submit a new proposal that would ensure the continuity of the reception of refugee groups and take into account the EU's two-year resettlement programme.