The Finnish Immigration Service has reassessed the security situation in Afghanistan
The Finnish Immigration Service has updated its guidelines for Afghanistan, which assess the situation there and the international protection needs of Afghan asylum-seekers in the light of the current security situation in the country.
The security situation in Afghanistan is unstable with considerable variation by province. According to a comment issued in July 2009 by the UN Refugee Agency UNHCR, the fiercest battles continue to be fought in Helmand and Kandahar, although unrest has also begun to emerge in other provinces.
More attention to be paid to individual reasons
The assessment of the security situation in Afghanistan has become more complicated because access to the areas in question by international actors, and aid organisations in particular, has become more difficult. For this reason and for the lack of resources, UNHCR no longer prepares regional security updates. The Finnish Immigration Service previously used these as a major benchmark for the evaluation of the security situation.
At the present time, UNHCR urges increased attention to the individual reasons of persons seeking international protection. The Finnish Immigration Service will thus use individual reasons as the key criterion in the assessment of the international protection needs of asylum-seekers from Afghanistan.
Due to lack of security, protection to be provided for persons coming from four provinces only
On the basis of a poor local security situation alone, the Finnish Immigration Service will only provide international protection to persons who come from one of four provinces of southern and eastern Afghanistan: Kandahar, Helmand, Khost or Kunar. Because of armed conflict, the security situation in those provinces is considerably worse than elsewhere and prevents the safe return home of asylum-seekers who originally come from there. These asylum-seekers are granted a residence permit on the basis of humanitarian protection if their applications do not include individual reasons for granting asylum or subsidiary protection.
Asylum applications of Afghans coming from other areas are rejected and the applicants are refused entry and returned to Afghanistan unless they have individual reasons for the granting of a residence permit.
There is unrest in many central and northern Afghanistan provinces, but it does not fulfil the definition of armed conflict. Afghanistan continues to have many provinces in which unrest does not affect the life of the ordinary civilian population. For example, areas under Taliban control are not necessarily unsafe for local civilians, though foreigners have no access to such areas.
The definition of policy by the Finnish Immigration Service essentially follows the UNHCR guidelines. The Finnish Immigration Service keeps a close watch on the situation in Afghanistan and reassesses its policy as needed. UNHCR has announced that it is currently updating its own guidelines.
Repatriation agreement is also in preparation
The updated guidelines for Afghanistan are largely based on the outcome of an Afghanistan project launched in the summer of 2009 under the European Return Fund. Last autumn, representatives from the Finnish Immigration Service and the police undertook a fact-finding mission to Afghanistan in order to establish a network of contacts with local Finnish nationals as well as international and local organisations. The importance of new contacts is emphasised now that UNHCR no longer prepares security updates.
Finland is also preparing a tripartite agreement with Afghanistan and UNHCR for the repatriation of Afghans both denied and granted a residence permit.
By the end of March of this year, a total of 77 Afghans had sought asylum in Finland. In 2009, the number was 461, which meant that Afghans formed the fifth largest national group of asylum-seekers.
Further information for the media: Pekka Martin, Senior Adviser, Legal Service and Country Information Unit, tel. 071 873 0431, e-mail: pekka.martin@migri.fi
19.4.2010
