Minister of the Interior Mari Rantanen (PS) met members of the media in the Parliament House in Helsinki on 8 November. In an interview with Iltalehti on Friday, Rantanen denied the suggestion that any discrimination has occurred during an ongoing effort to finalise the national refugee quota for 2025. (Vesa Moilanen – Lehtikuva)
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THE POLITICAL LEADERSHIP of the Ministry of the Interior tried to set Christians as one priority for the refugee quota for next year, according to a document obtained by Iltalehti.
Iltalehti on Friday revealed that the document pertains to a discussion about the quota between ministry officials on 20 August, naming Christians as a “preference of the political leadership” along with girls and women, and nationalities who if necessary can be returned to their home country.
The document indicates that the political leadership was eager to fill 90 per cent of the quota with girls and women. The UN High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR), it also acknowledged, has outlined that it is unfeasible to fill more than roughly two-thirds of the quota with girls and women.
The Finnish government has already decided to roughly half the quota to 500.
The UNHCR in July proposed that the national quota include roughly 150 Syrian refugees from Turkey and 200 Afghan refugees from Iran. The Ministry of the Interior, by contrast, was hoping to allocate 250 spots in the quota to Congolese refugees in Rwanda and 120 spots to Venezuelan refugees in Peru, according to Iltalehti.
Both Venezuela and the Democratic Republic of Congo are Christian countries.
YLE reported earlier this month that the extent of political steering in defining the quota for next year is evident in a report submitted to the Ombudsman for Equality by the Ministry of the Interior. Acting Ombudsman for Equality Robin Harms in October launched an inquest into the apparent political steering, remarking that public reports about the process give rise to a suspicion of unlawful religion-based discrimination.
Harms on 7 November told the public broadcasting company that his assumptions were confirmed by classified appendices of the ministry report. “Reading only the report will leave certain things a bit unclear,” he remarked.
The decision to classify the appendices on grounds of an ongoing political process was questioned in an interview with Uusi Suomi by Tomi Voutilainen, a professor of public law at the University of Eastern Finland.
The quota has been prepared under the political guidance of Minister of the Interior Mari Rantanen (PS) and Minister of Transport and Communications Lulu Ranne (PS), who deputised Rantanen between late August and 8 November. Both Finns Party lawmakers have denied the suggestion that any discrimination occurred during the preparatory work.
“I’ll start by stating that we don’t make these choices based on religion. Religion can be one reason for the kind of persecution that has resulted in these people being recognised as refugees and in need of re-settlement by the UNHCR,” Rantanen said to Iltalehti on Friday.
Aleksi Teivainen – HT
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Source: www.helsinkitimes.fi
