In an extraordinary meeting on November 24, the government decided that people arriving across the eastern border will be processed in registration centers.
“The Ministry of the Interior is preparing a regulation on registration centers. This is done for security reasons because we don’t know who is coming across the border. People will be held by the authorities until they are registered, which means personal data, fingers and a photograph, as well as register checks.”
That’s what Mari Rantanen (Finns), the minister of the interior, said on X on Thursday afternoon.
But, what are registration centers?
Life in the registration centers is more limited than in the shelters. Finland has previously resorted to them in 2015 during the refugee crisis.
Annu Lehtinen, the executive director at the Finnish Refugee Council, said to the Finnish daily Helsingin Sanomat that the registration centers help to handle large numbers of people.
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Lehtinen believes that the Ministry of the Interior’s intention is to create primary registration centers, where people stay for a short time to register and clarify their situation until they are transferred to, for example, reception centers as part of the normal asylum procedure.
“Restrictions on people’s movement can only be short-term and well-founded,” Lehtinen said.
“Such practices can be put in place if justified and for a short period of time, but then we cannot talk about periods of weeks, for example,” she continued.
On Friday, the government summoned in an extraordinary session where they decided to establish to put establishing the registration centers into practice.
Read also: More Undocumented Asylum Seekers on the Eastern Border
The Finnish Immigration Service (Migri) and the police have considered it necessary at the moment to establish two registration centers, in Joutseno and Oulu, according to a memorandum from the Ministry of the Interior.
Migri is ready to establish a settlement center “within a few days,” according to Ilkka Haahtela, the director general of the Finnish Immigration Service.
“The readiness is very good. Together we will assess where and how many settlement centers need to be set up,” Haahtela said.
The government’s decision will be in force until December 23, 2023.
Read also: Finnish Eastern Border Remains Shut
Source: finlandtoday.fi
