Finnish police flew the first planeload of former Iraqi asylum seekers via a nonstop flight from Helsinki to Baghdad on Thursday. Just over 100 people were voluntarily repatriated, accompanied by dozens of Finnish police. Most of the Iraqis had cancelled their asylum applications.
Helsinki Police say the operation went smoothly. Reuters published a photo of Iraqi men kissing the floor of the airport.
It quotes Iraqi foreign ministry official Ahmed Jammal as saying that such flights will be arranged on a weekly basis from Finland, bringing 100-150 people at a time.
Finnish police have arranged such charter flights over the past decade. For instance in recent months there have been seven repatriation flights to Albania, which is an EU applicant state and NATO member.
Weekly flights likely
There have not been any flights to Iraq in recent years, though. Police say they are ready to arrange such flights on a weekly basis.
They estimate that repatriation flights cost an average of 900 euros per person. However the newspaper Helsingin Sanomat calculates that this one cost 1,500-2,000 euros per person. The cost is paid for by Finnish police.
Authorities say that more than 4,100 asylum seekers have cancelled their applications and the number will probably rise to 5,000 this spring. Most of the 32,500 asylum seekers who arrived in Finland last year were from Iraq.
Last year Finnish authorities repatriated 3180 people. The number sent back in January this year was 20 percent higher than a year earlier.
