Celebrating the 1951 Refugee Convention and Finland’s contribution

This year the UN Convention Relating to the Status of Refugees turns 60. It is also 20 years since the reception of asylum-seekers started in Finland. To celebrate these anniversaries the Ministry of the Interior and the Finnish Immigration Service arranged a commemorative seminar in Helsinki in late April. The event was opened by Tarja Halonen, President of the Republic of Finland.  

Tarja Halonen especially thanked all people working in reception centres. She further pointed out that being a refugee should only be a temporary phase in a person’s life. She underlined the difficult situation for unaccompanied children.

- It is extremely important to focus attention on minors. They risk being subject to forced labour or even becoming child soldiers, Halonen emphasised.

Initially the 1951 Convention Relating to the Status of Refugees was drafted to deal with the refugee issues in Europe following the Second World War. However, Hans ten Feld, UNHCR Regional Representative for the Baltic and Nordic Countries, affirmed that the Convention principles are still very much relevant and up-to-date. During the years many countries have done a lot to help refugees, but the threat of resurgent racism and xenophobia is again present.

- In these challenging times, examples of good practice and of commitment to principles of international protection take on ever greater meaning. Finland has a proper system for receiving asylum-seekers and for assessing their claims, and has been an important partner in refugee resettlement for over two decades. Finland has also been one of the top donors to UNHCR’s programmes worldwide. These are all considerable achievements from a country of just five million people, said Hans ten Feld. He also thanked Finland for setting a very good example internationally.

The Finnish reception of asylum-seekers began as a cooperation between the State and the Red Cross in the beginning of the 1990’s.

- It all began with basic services like accommodation, health care and social services. In 1999 the Act on the Integration of Immigrants and Reception of Asylum Seekers came into force. Nowadays the services are professional, the rules are established and everyone knows what to do, recalled Veikko Pyykkönen, Senior Advisor from the Finnish Immigration Service.

The Finnish Immigration Service is in charge of the reception of asylum-seekers. The biggest challenge is the difficulty to predict the number of asylum-seekers arriving each year. The Finnish Immigration Service and the reception centres have agreed on how many asylum-seekers each reception centre should receive.

- The number of new arrivals has fluctuated a lot during the last 20 years so it is difficult to estimate the capacity needed. Lately the number of asylum-seekers has dropped significantly, said Veikko Pyykkönen.

Another speaker praised the people working in reception centres, saying they are very committed to their work.

– A reception centre is an astonishing organization. It can be set-up on very short notice and the first clients may arrive within eight hours, explained Ritva Viljanen, Permanent Secretary at the Ministry of the Interior.

The last speaker, Minister of Migration and European Affairs, Astrid Thors, argued that the reception of asylum-seekers in Finland meets international standards. However, the challenge is the number of resettlement places offered by municipalities.

– The most problematic issue today is the lack of places in municipalities. If the attitude in the municipalities does not change, we will soon be in a situation where the municipalities define our international human rights policy and there is a danger that some of those who have already received residence permits will become homeless, Thors warned.

Finland acceded to the 1951 Convention Relating to the Status of Refugees in 1968.

144 states have acceded to the 1951 Refugee Convention.

• Questions and Answers about The 1951 Refugee Convention

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