The citizens’ initiative requiring a permanent residence permit for long-term asylum seekers is progressing into the parliamentary debate. The signatories want Finland to issue a four-year residence permit to persons whose asylum application has been rejected before 2017.
The initiative exceeded the required 50,000 signatures on Friday night and will go to parliament for consideration by MPs.
The initiative wants Finland to enact a law granting a continuous four-year residence permit to persons who have applied for asylum in Finland before 2017 but have not obtained a permanent residence permit.
Proponents of the initiative said that granting permanent residence rights to undocumented people, for example, would effectively address Finland’s acute human rights issues, including lengthy asylum processes and the problems of illegal immigrants.
Finland is currently intensifying the work permit process, as the immigration authority Migri has estimated that up to 80,000 Ukrainian citizens may enter Finland this year. In 2016, Migri rejected nearly half of the asylum applications filed in 2015 when migrants from the Middle East fled to Europe.
Source: The Nordic Page
