1100 refugees make new applications in Jan-Jun

About 2,300 people sought asylum in Finland in January to July this year and about 1,100 of them submitted subsequent applications as they received at least one asylum decision previously.

This year by the end of July, the largest number of subsequent applications was submitted by Iraqis (about 710 applications), who are the largest group of asylum seekers in Finland, said a press release issued by Finnish Immigration Service (Migri).

A subsequent application is an application for international protection that a person submits after having received a final decision on an earlier application. The number of asylum applications that a person can submit is not limited by legislation.

In practice, the application has to contain new grounds for international protection that will influence the decision.

This year, 15 per cent of the decisions on subsequent applications have been positive, and 32 per cent have been negative.

In 47 per cent cases, the application has been dismissed in the preliminary investigation. This means the applications have not contained new grounds that would influence the decision. Expired applications amounted to 6 per cent.

Subsequent applications are not a new phenomenon in themselves. In 2017, nearly 1,800 persons out of 5,000 asylum applicants had already received a decision at least once.

The new grounds that are given are most often that the applicant has converted to Christianity while in Finland or that the applicant belongs to a sexual or gender minority.

Another new ground is that the situation in the applicant’s home country has changed since the previous decision was made. Sometimes the applicants plead that a previous decision has been faulty, even after the application has first been processed by Finnish Immigration Service and then tried in both courts.