Dispirited by Finn asylum process, Iraqi refugees head back home
Tareq Ajaj, one of the Iraqi refugees frustrated by the delays in the processing of asylum applications, says Finland was different from what he had imagined. He says, “I don't know what happens to me in Iraq, but here I will die mentally.” Officials say almost 70 percent of Iraqi refugees whose applications were examined in Finland last year have given up their claims and are returning home instead.
According to a Friday report by the Nordic country’s immigration service, out of the 3,700 Iraqi asylum applications processed in 2015, nearly 2,600 of the claims were "expired," meaning the applicants had either cancelled the process or disappeared.
"They have told us that family issues in their home country force them to go back. Some have found the Finnish atmosphere hostile and some have not stayed because of the dark autumn and cold winter," said Juha Simila, head of asylum department at the immigration service.
Simila also said asylum seekers were disappointed with the processing time, which increased when the number of refugees rose from 3,650 in 2014, to 32,500 in 2015.
In late September 2015, Finland tightened its criteria for granting asylum to Iraqi refugees, citing a review of the security situation in the violence-scarred country.
Helsinki “freezes its decision-making on Iraqi … asylum claims for the time being. This is due to the ongoing assessment of the security situation in Iraq," the immigration service said in a statement.
Finland’s guidelines for granting people asylum may “be made stricter" after the review if it concludes that there has been an improvement in the security situation in parts of Iraq, the statement added.
Europe is facing an unprecedented influx of refugees who are fleeing conflict-hit zones in North Africa and the Middle East. According to figures released by the International Organization for Migration (IOM), more than one million refugees reached Europe’s shores in 2015. Over 3,300 people either died or went missing in their hazardous journey to the continent.
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