Some 160 individuals who utilized for asylum at Finland’s japanese border final 12 months have since disappeared, amid a sudden surge of asylum seekers arriving by way of Russia, Finland’s immigration authority mentioned.
Finland closed its japanese border with Russia late final 12 months amidst a rising variety of arrivals from international locations together with Syria and Somalia. It accused Moscow of funnelling migrants to the border, a declare the Kremlin has denied.
The immigration authority Migri mentioned it bought 1,323 asylum purposes on the japanese border between August and December final 12 months, about 900 of these in November and greater than 300 in December.
Now 160 persons are lacking from reception centres, most with unknown whereabouts, Migri’s Director of the Asylum Unit, Antti Lehtinen advised Reuters.
Eighteen individuals have turned up in different European international locations, together with the Netherlands, Belgium, Norway, Sweden, France, Germany and Switzerland, to refile an asylum utility.
“It is in fact attainable that of those 160 most of them have continued to a different nation, however they have not but utilized for asylum in that nation,” Lehtinen mentioned.
Each asylum seeker in Finland has their fingerprint taken to the Eurodac-system, Europe’s shared fingerprint database, Lehtinen added.
Underneath EU guidelines, the EU nation the place a migrant first applies for asylum is answerable for processing the applying.
