New provisions clarify enforcement of removals from the country and protection status impacts of travelling to home country

One aspect that the amendments concern is the enforcement of deportation decisions made in connection with decisions on international protection. The amendments aim to harmonise the provisions on enforcement of decisions on deportation and on denial of admittance or stay. 

A decision on removal from the country made for a customer who has held a residence permit is called a deportation decision. A decision on removal from the country made for a customer who has not yet had a residence permit is called a decision on denial of admittance or stay. The amended provisions concern situations where a person who has resided in Finland with a residence permit has received a deportation decision and the person applies for international protection to delay being removed from the country, for example.

“From now on, the enforcement of deportation decisions will be more straightforward in situations where the applicant has made a manifestly unfounded application or has received a decision on their application being considered inadmissible, for example. In such cases, lodging an appeal against the deportation decision will not automatically delay the applicant’s removal from the country. In addition, there is now no need to make a new deportation decision following a subsequent application, meaning that the negative decision will be enforceable from service of the decision,” says Roosa Simola, Asylum Examination Process Owner.

The Aliens Act now contains provisions that allow refugee status to be denied in situations where the applicant has filed a subsequent application and the need for protection is based on circumstances which the applicant has created by his or her own decision since leaving his or her home country. Instead of refugee status, the applicant may be granted subsidiary protection. 

Another change resulting from the amendments is that the transcript of the asylum interview will no longer be reviewed together with the client at the end of the asylum interview. From now on, clients will have two weeks to review the interview transcript and to submit clarifications and corrections to it. This change saves time and streamlines the processing of asylum applications, also from the client’s perspective. 

Provisions on how travelling to home country impacts protection status 

The Aliens Act now contains provisions on how a client’s travelling to his or her home country or former country of permanent residence affects the consideration of ending of protection status. Ending a client's protection status has been possible even before the amendments in cases where a beneficiary of international protection travelled to his or her home country, but now the rule is laid down by law. 

“Similar consideration has been made by the Finnish Immigration Service even before, but now the implications of travelling to the country of origin are more solidly observed in decision-making since there are now provisions on how travelling impacts the consideration of whether or not the client's protection status must be ended. This clarifies the matter from a client’s perspective as well,” says Milla Väisänen, Process Specialist, from the process of ending and revocation of refugee status.

Being granted a travel document by the Finnish Immigration Service exceptionally with no restrictions on the document's territorial validity does not prevent initiating withdrawal considerations regarding the client’s international protection status if the client travels to his or her home country. The client must have a weighty reason for travelling to his or her home country in such cases as well.

Restrictions on use of refugee travel documents and alien’s passports

A client who has been granted international protection can no longer use an alien’s passport issued by Finland or a refugee travel document issued by Finland to travel to his or her home country or country of permanent residence. The restriction affects, among others, clients who have been granted asylum or subsidiary protection status, quota refugees, and clients who have been granted a residence permit on the basis of family ties together with protection status in connection with the residence permit decision.

A client who has been granted international protection may be allowed to travel to his or her home country or former country of permanent residence with travel documents granted by Finland only for exceptionally weighty reasons. In such cases, the travel document is issued for a maximum of one year. 

“Allowing a beneficiary of international protection to travel to his or her home country or former country of permanent residence with a travel document issued by Finland will require closer investigation and assessment,” says Antti Jäppinen, Travel Document Process Owner.

Enquiries

• Asylum examination and subsequent applications: Process Owner Roosa Simola, email: firstname.lastname@migri.fi, tel. 0295 433 713
• Ending refugee status: Process Specialist Milla Väisänen, email: firstname.lastname@migri.fi, tel. 0295 433 946
• Refugee travel documents and alien’s passports issued by Finland: Process Owner Antti Jäppinen, email: firstname.lastname@migri.fi, tel. 0295 463 220