The Finnish government is to require asylum seekers to work for free and to acknowledge a “national curriculum” on the nation’s culture and society, it said on Tuesday, launching measures to tighten its immigration policy.
It also plans to reassess conditions in asylum seekers’ home countries twice per year, and if necessary cancel residence permits accordingly.
After its latest reassessment on Afghanistan, the government said it would no longer grant subsidiary protection — claimed by people who say they face death or torture — to asylum seekers from southern or eastern Afghanistan.
“The new set of measures will tighten our practices and erase possible attractiveness factors,” Finnish Prime Minister Juha Sipila told reporters.
About 32,000 asylum seekers have traveled to the Nordic country this year, compared to just 3,600 last year, as refugees and migrants pour into Europe fleeing war and poverty.
The government said it would speed up the return of migrants who do not qualify for asylum. It estimated about two thirds will be rejected.
With the Finnish economy set to shrink for a fourth successive year, anti-immigrant sentiment has increased after police last month reported it was investigating several cases in which asylum seekers are suspected of rape. Violent hate crime against asylum seekers has also picked up.
The government said it would start assigning work to working-age asylum seekers on the grounds that meaningful action would help relieve their frustration.
“It is not necessarily paid work, it could be something outdoors, some maintenance work at the reception center... the longer that people are idle, the more frustrated they become,” Finnish Minister on Justice and Labor Jari Lindstrom said.
The government is also to compose an information package on Finnish culture and society, highlighting the rights of women and children.
“All asylum seekers will acknowledge it as received. No one can be able to say that they didn’t know,” Lindstrom said.
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