NGOs Oppose Deportations to Iraq

The Directorate of Immigration said last month that rejected asylum seekers could be de deported to the relatively-calm Kurdish area of northern Iraq. The Refugee Advice Centre and the Finnish chapter of Amnesty International argue that no area of Iraq is now safe enough to warrant sending anyone there.

EU interior ministers are to discuss the status of Iraqi refugees and asylum seekers in Luxemburg on Friday.

About 200 Iraqis applied for asylum in Finland last year, compared to some 9,000 in neighbouring Sweden.

Last year one rejected asylum seeker returned voluntarily from Finland to Iraq. Finland deported eight others to the Democratic Republic of Congo despite the ongoing civil war there.