The Finnish Immigration Service has updated its security situation assessment regarding Afghanistan.
Subsidiary protection is no longer granted to asylum seekers arriving from the
- Helmand
- Khost
- Paktika
- Oruzgan
provinces.
Similarly, subsidiary protection is not granted to persons arriving from the districts of Ab Band, Muqur, Nawa and Rashidan in the Ghazni province.
Assessment of an internal flight alternative is conducted in every case
The Finnish Immigration Service still considers certain provinces in South and East Afghanistan to be unsafe, but there are large areas in the country with no security threats.
A difficult security situation in the applicant's region of origin in itself does not provide sufficient grounds for being granted asylum or a residence permit in Finland. The applicant's internal flight alternative, in other words relocation to a safe area in the home country, is always assessed.
The update is based on recent information provided by the agency’s Country Information Service. The Finnish Immigration Service’s reassessment was based on facts such as the number and intensity of incidents and the number of civilian victims in reported incidents. The assessment also covered transport connections to safe areas.
Persons suspected of being adults to undergo an age determination test
A high number of Afghan asylum seekers arriving in Finland this autumn were unaccompanied minors. If the authorities have reason to believe the applicant is not a minor, the applicant will be referred for an age determination test.
Further information for the media
Esko Repo, Director of Asylum Unit, Tel. +358 295 430 431, firstname.lastname@migri.fi
Edited on 14 December. The sentence ”Other parts of Ghazni are still considered unsafe” has been removed.
There are 19 districts in Ghazni, but only the districts that were previously considered unsafe but are now considered safe are mentioned in the press release.
