The government has not yet taken a final decision about Finland’s plan to accept quota refugees next year.
The Finns Party has proposed reducing the number of quota refugees accepted from Muslim-majority countries while increasing the intake from Christian-majority nations, according to newspaper Helsingin Sanomat.
According to sources, Interior Minister Mari Rantanen (Finns) and acting interior minister Lulu Ranne (Finns) have directed officials to prepare to exclude quota refugees from countries like Afghanistan next year. Meanwhile, the number of such refugees would increase for countries such as Venezuela.
Interior Minister Ranne declined to comment on the matter to Yle and HS.
Yle was unable to independently verify the claims reported by HS. The final decision on next year’s refugee quotas is still pending.
The proposal is currently under review by a working group composed of officials from the Ministry of the Interior, Ministry of Economic Affairs and Employment, Ministry of Foreign Affairs, the Finnish Security and Intelligence Service (Supo), and the Finnish Immigration Service Migri.
Decisions on quota refugee allocations will be outlined in the ministerial committee on internal security and administration of justice, with the earliest deliberations expected by the end of October. Parliament will make the final decision on the 2025 refugee quota in December, as part of the next year’s budget.
Prime Minister Petteri Orpo’s (NCP) government has already decided to reduce the total number of quota refugees from 1,050 to 500. This year, Finland has received quota refugees from Afghanistan, the Democratic Republic of the Congo, Syria and Venezuela, as well as refugees displaced from Libya to Rwanda.
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