Finland reconsiders already granted asylum rights

The Finnish Immigration Authority (Migri) has started to arrange new interviews for those already accepted as refugees in Finland, media reported on Saturday.

Newspaper Hufvudstadsbladet (HBL) quoted unidentified Migri sources as saying that the repeated interviews are now done to meet government policy demands.

The Finnish refugee policy program from last December requires Migri to cancel residence permits if the need for protection no longer exists.

Explaining the overall system, Matti Makarainen, division head at Migri, told the newspaper that refugee status can be cancelled if a person would no longer need protection in his or her homeland.

Other reasons can be that "the refugee has returned to visit the home country and come back", or "has given misleading information earlier".

Makarainen said various investigations are started to verify if the need for protection still exists. "Mostly it concerns people from Iraq, but also Somalis."

However, if the refugee has already been given permanent residency permit in Finland, changed circumstances in the country of origin would not change the status in Finland. Permanent residents of alien extraction can only be evicted on account of criminality or security concerns.

Reports about reruns of interviews came some days after a demonstration by hundreds of asylum seekers outside the Migri head offices in Helsinki...
 [Xinhua/globaltimes.cn]
11/9/16