About one in six (17%) of respondents thought that the country should continue to receive asylum applications. One-fifth of the respondents, on the other hand, did not have an opinion on the matter.
According to the daily, the answers varied significantly depending on the political position.
The suspension of the reception of asylum applications if the country is facing a hybrid campaign received the support of a majority of supporters of the Basic Finns, the Coalition Party, the Center Party and the Social Democrats. Respondents who approved the transfer accounted for about a quarter of the Greens and the Left.
The issue is due to the ongoing crisis on the Belarusian-EU border. Belarus has pushed thousands of migrants to the border in protest of the sanctions imposed on it by the European Union last year. described as a hybrid attack President of the European Commission Ursula von der Leyen.
Last autumn, Finnish opposition parties demanded changes to the law from the government to prepare for the use of similar tactics against Finland.
The survey also considered views on the construction of barriers, such as fences, on Finland’s eastern border. More than a third of respondents said they supported the idea and 45 percent opposed it.
Respondents were also asked whether long-term residents who had been refused asylum should be granted a temporary residence permit if they could not be returned to their home country.
Ministry of the Interior officials have considered the possibility of issuing long-term residence permits as a solution to the situation of long-term illegal residents. According to Helsingin Sanomat, most of such people originally came to the country as asylum seekers.
Nearly half of respondents indicated that permits should not be granted and 38 percent that they should be granted. About one in seven did not have an opinion on the matter.
Kantar TNS interviewed 1,062 people over a five-day period in mid-December.
Aleksi Teivainen – HT
Source: The Nordic Page