Interviewing and filming of customers

Whenever you interview or film our customers for example at our premises, you must always ask permission from each individual. Asylum seekers in particular may encounter safety risks if their picture or name is published in the media since this makes it easy to track their whereabouts. Always consider carefully before publishing personal information about an asylum seeker.

Particular caution is needed with minors, as the Guidelines for Journalists (section 30) also point out. If you wish to interview or film minors, you need permission from their guardian or other legal representative.

Finnish Immigration Service cannot provide customers’ contact details

The Finnish Immigration Service is unfortunately unable to help the media in finding immigrants who are willing to be interviewed. Customer details must be kept confidential. We are therefore unable to provide the media with our customers’ contact information.

Applying for a resident permit or citizenship is often a matter of great significance to our customers, and they may believe that agreeing to a media interview arranged by the authorities will have a positive impact on the handling of their application. For this reason, we will not ask individual customers whether they are willing to be interviewed by the media. We will concentrate solely on processing their permit applications.

You may find immigrants willing to be interviewed through various immigrant organisations and the immigrant services offered by cities and municipalities. You can also contact employers and international educational institutions to ask for interviewees.