Effect of crime on the asylum process

When an application for international protection is being processed, any crimes the applicant is guilty of or suspected of will be taken into account. In some cases, crimes committed in countries other than Finland will also be taken into account. 

If you have committed a crime, your application for international protection will be processed in an accelerated procedure.

If you commit a crime while your application for international protection is still being processed, the criminal investigation will be kept separate from the processing of your application for international protection. The police will investigate the crime, and the Finnish Immigration Service examines the application for international protection. 

If you have committed a crime or are suspected of having committed a crime and you do not have grounds for international protection and you can safely return to your home country, an entry ban will be imposed on you in connection with the decision on your removal from the country.

Exclusion and non-refoulement

The Finnish Immigration Service does not grant you international protection if exclusion is applied to your situation. Read more about exclusion.

According to the non-refoulement obligation, it is not possible to remove a person from the country if the person in their home country faces a risk of being subjected to the death penalty, torture, persecution or other inhuman treatment or treatment violating human dignity, even in cases where the person is guilty of a serious crime.

Non-refoulement is based on the Finnish constitution, Aliens Act and the European Convention on Human Rights. The Finnish Immigration Service always respects the principle of non-refoulement. When a person cannot be returned to his or her home country because of the non-refoulement obligation, he or she is granted a residence permit on the basis of non-refoulement. That permit can be issued for a maximum of one year. It is a weaker permit than a residence permit issued on the basis of international protection. The Finnish Immigration Service will assess once a year whether the applicant may return to his or her home country.

An asylum seeker convicted in Finland may be serving their sentence in Finland

If you are convicted of a crime, you may be serving your sentence in Finland, or you may be transferred or extradited to another EU+ country.

A person with a refugee status usually has the right to family reunification, but if the person is in prison, his or her family members cannot get residence permits.