Finland is set to tighten its laws for migrants and asylum seekers, with the incoming Interior Minister describing what she saw as the ‘total failure’ of policy in Sweden, and the need to prevent an “economic or security threat to Finland”.
Local media described the remarks by Mari Rantanen of the Finns Party as a “radical” change.
Finnish newspaper, YLE, said that the announcement was a ‘u-turn’ and reported the incoming Minister as saying: “We will tighten all the conditions to come to Finland, to stay here and to be in Finland.”
“We have to react here to what we have seen in Sweden. We’re looking to take action to make sure immigration doesn’t cause economic or security threats to Finland,” Ms Rantanen told Yle TV1’s breakfast show Aamu TV.
She described the Swedish immigration policy as a “total failure”.
“We’re moving in a completely different direction in immigration policy, and you could possibly say that the government will be making the biggest change of course we’ve seen for 30 years,” she told YLE Aamu on Tuesday.
“This is a complete paradigm shift.”
She addressed the issue of the government’s plans to return more failed asylum seekers to their country of origin.
“We’ve been too indulgent when it comes to those who’ve received a negative [asylum] decision. It’s often been possible to stay here to draft repeat applications, and it’s difficult to remove people from the country. In fact, both returns and removals have outright collapsed in the past four years,” Ms Rantanen said.
The incoming Finnish government also aims to minimise the number of asylum seekers arriving in the country – seeking to reduce the annual refugee quota from 1,050 to 500.
Ms Rantanen told local media that the decision was made due to current economic difficulties.
“It’d be very peculiar if we maintained the refugee quota at the same level because it’s a fact that everything that’s extra – all efforts to better the world – are paid for with debt,” she said.
“The government programme does state that we’ll try to focus on minorities who’re persecuted specifically in their own country and minorities who’re persecuted on refugee camps. We’ll have to examine who we’ll look to receive when it comes to the quota, but these could include Christians and Yezidis,” she said.
“There are so many refugees. The kind of moral posturing where you welcome as many as possible isn’t particularly smart.”
She pointed to other Nordic countries, saying that changes were required in Finland. Denmark has set a target of ‘zero’ asylum seekers, and has introduced a requirement for some immigrants claiming welfare to work a certain number of hours a week.
Former Prime Minister, Mette Frederiksen, previously said that: “it is becoming increasingly clear that the price of unregulated globalisation, mass immigration and the free movement of labour is paid for by the lower classes.”
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