In order to accommodate refugees under a European Commision (EC) plan to spread refugees throughout the community, Finnish Broadcasting Company (YLE) understands that Finland’s refugee quota will drop to 750 in 2016. The current quota was raised last year to 1,000 due to the humanitarian crisis in Syria.
The best response to the Finnish government plans to lower the refugee quota next year came from Amnesty International Finland director, Frank Johansson, who blamed the parties in government for such plans.
Read full story here.
“[It is a] cynical way of creative bookkeeping that completely fails to take responsibility in [addressing] the world’s largest refugee crisis, and the common decision making that the EU demands of Finland,” he was quoted as saying on YLE in English. “Evidently the finance ministry’s calculations about what this budget item would cost is more important than to help people who are in very great distress.”
While the anti-immigration Perussuomalaiset (PS)* party have exerted a strong influence over the other ruling parties concerning refugee policy, there has been a big hole in leadership from Prime Minister Juha Sipilä’s Center Party and Alxander Stubb’s National Coalition Party on taking a more proactive approach to the humanitarian crisis in the Mediterranean.
It’s clear that Finland has a very shortsighted view of the situation. What would happen if tens of thousand of Russians fled to Finland in the face of a civil war? Would other EU countries respond in the same way as Finland today by stating that it’s your problem?
Last year Sweden granted 33,000 refugees asylum Finland accept a mere 1,430.