Reception centre operations to end in Hyvinkää, Inkeroinen, Kitee and Laajakoski, Kotka

The Finnish Immigration Service has discontinued the contracts of the reception centres in Hyvinkää and Inkeroinen. Their operations will end by the end of April 2018. Both centres are maintained by Hoivapalvelu Metsätähti Oy. There are 180 beds in the Hyvinkää reception centre, 150 in Inkeroinen.

The Finnish Immigration Service will also close the reception centres maintained by the Finnish Red Cross in Kitee and Kotka. The Kitee reception centre has 300 beds, while the other reception centre in Laajakoski, Kotka, has 250 beds. Their operations will end by the end of June 2018.

There are currently some 13,500 asylum seekers in Finland. A total of 55 reception centres are maintained for them, eight of which are intended for unaccompanied minor asylum seekers. Approximately 4,320 asylum seekers are registered at reception centres but live in private accommodation.

The total number of persons registered as asylum seekers in Finland is currently decreasing by some 500 persons per month. These asylum seekers are granted a residence permit and move from reception centres to Finnish municipalities, or they leave Finland or stop receiving reception services for other reasons. The Finnish Immigration Service expects to need a significantly smaller accommodation capacity at reception centres by next summer.

When the Finnish reception system was at its largest in January and February 2016, it consisted of 247 different units that had the capacity to accommodate more than 33,000 asylum seekers.

Several reception centres to reduce accommodation capacity over the winter and spring

The Finnish Immigration Service has instructed 23 reception centres to reduce their accommodation capacity by a total of more than 1,100 beds over the winter and spring 2018. The organisation of accommodation capacity at the reception centres is still ongoing. The reception centres will reduce their accommodation capacity in a way that permits the Finnish Immigration Service to increase their capacity again, if necessary.

It is estimated that several reception centres will be closed in the summer of 2018. This process is currently at the planning stage.

Further information for the media

Kimmo Lehto, Head of Section, e-mail: firstname.lastname@migri.fi, tel. +358 295 430 431