Finland and Sweden hold the same view on the situation in Iraq but there are differences in the legislation in the two countries

Last week, the Swedish Migration Agency published its new judicial evaluation on the situation in Iraq. This has led to comparison of the practices for granting asylum in Finland and Sweden. The previous Swedish evaluation was published in the autumn of 2014.

The Finnish Immigration Service has familiarised itself with the new Swedish guidelines and found that Finland and Sweden share the same view on the situation in the different parts of Iraq. However, the Swedish judicial evaluation takes into account that the Swedish Aliens Act has a national permit category which Finland does not have and the different areas of the country are evaluated based on the requirements for this permit type (utlänningslagen 4 kap. 2 a §).

The Finnish Immigration Service has also stated that it considers the situation in Iraq to be unstable (see the agency’s press release from 5 September 2016). As a consequence of the offensive in Mosul, the safety situation especially in Mosul and its neighbouring areas has become worse compared to last spring.

“In the same way as Sweden, Finland does not return anybody to an area with armed conflicts”, Hanna Helinko, Director of Legal Service and Country Information Unit, points out.

New country guidelines in January, legal practices starting to take shape

The Finnish government’s action plan on asylum policy requires that the Finnish Immigration Service evaluates the situation in Iraq and other main countries of origin every six months when it comes to granting international protection and returning asylum seekers to different areas. Changes in the situation in different areas are constantly reviewed and every decision on asylum applications is made according to the situation at the time of the decision. The courts also take into account the prevailing situation in the country or a certain part of the country when processing asylum appeals.

The Finnish Immigration Service is currently updating its county guidelines that were published in May 2016. The updated guidelines for Afghanistan, Iraq and Somalia will be published in January next year.

“When updating the guidelines, we will also examine whether any such changes in the circumstances of the countries have taken place that affect the judicial evaluation on the granting of international protection. It is a question of whether it is possible to return asylum seekers who lack individual grounds for receiving international protection in Finland to these areas,” says Helinko.

Further information for the media:

Hanna Helinko, Director of Legal Service and Country Information Unit, tel. +358 295 430 431, firstname.lastname@migri.fi