Iraqi refugees in Finland returning home due to 'chilly weather and hostile locals'

Thousands of applications for asylum have been cancelled, officials say, with Finland chartering flights to take the refugees back to Baghdad from next week

The refugees dislike the cold weather Photo: Reuters

By James Rothwell

5:26PM GMT 12 Feb 2016

Thousands of Iraqis who arrived in Finland last year have decided to cancel their asylum applications and return home, with some saying they dislike the frosty weather and find the locals unfriendly.

More than 4,100 applications for asylum have been cancelled, officials say, with Finland chartering flights to take the refugees back to Baghdad from next week.

Though the majority say they yearn to be reunited with their families, others are simply disillusioned with the Nordic way of life, according to a local travel agent in Helsinki.

Muhiadin Hassan, who is selling up to twenty tickets to Baghdad each day, told Reuters: "Some say they don't like the food here, it's too cold or they don't feel welcome in Finland. There are many reasons."

Finland's intake of asylum seekers rose nearly tenfold last year, after applications increased from 3,600 in 2014 to 32,500 in 2015.

Nearly 80 per cent of the returnees are Iraqis, while just 22 of the 877 Syrians who have sought asylum in Finland have asked to return home.

Tobias van Treeckk, a program officer for the International Organisation for Migration, said Finnish bureaucracy had given some Iraqis second thoughts about staying.

"Some say the conditions in Finland and the lengthy asylum process did not meet their expectations, or what they had been told by the people they paid for their travel," he said.

Pic: Action Press/REX Shutterstock

1 million

Refugees and migrants have arrived in Europe via illegal routes

38 percent

Proportion of migrants who are from Syria

1,200,000

Syrian refugees being housed in Lebanon – a country 100 times smaller than Europe

One in five

Proportion of people in Lebanon who are refugees

1 in 122

According to the head of the UN refugee agency, one in 122 people is a refugee

1.2 percent

Proportion of migrants who land in Italy and Greece, then get as far as Calais 

100,000

Illegal migrants were stopped from entering Britain by UK Border Force officials in 2015

15 per cent

Proportion of female refugees from Syria who are pregnant in Turkey

---

Data as of November 2015

While most of the returnees pay for their own flights, Finland gave financial help to more than 630 people in 2015 and a similar number is expected this year.

"The number of returnees is increasing steadily ... all asylum seekers are informed about the options for voluntary return and about the available financial assistance," Paivi Nerg, a senior official in the Finnish interior ministry, said.

Finland, along with other Nordic states, has tightened its immigration policy and now requires working-age asylum seekers to do some unpaid works.

It comes amid growing hostilities towards migrants in the country, which isfacing economic problems and has little experience of mass immigration.

TheSource:http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/europe/finland/12154665/iraqi-refugees-leave-finland-return-home.html

Comment:

"                                       Cold weather and immigration

Canada would be a very empty place were it not for tough people who came here from warmer climates. And stayed.

And then there were all the many folks who simply could not cope and returned.

On balance, things worked out pretty well.

But this is 2016.

Every person who returns takes with him a cost to Canada and Canadians. 

There is shame in Canada not offering solace to refugees.

There is logic in Canada offering an opportunity to entrepreneurial immigrants.

There is no shame, or illegality, by our vetting refugees and immigrants in order to determine their adaptability before they are granted residency.

The cost of failed integration is high both in terms of money and public support for both refugee and immigrant movements. The Lebanese movement stands as testament to what can go wrong with poorly selected refugees. The investor and business immigrant programs are testament to what can go wrong with poorly selected economic immigrants.

As always, I return to the many illegal workers who have already proven their commitment to Canada. Their taxes already support the Lebanese who returned to their mountains and the Hong Kong folks who are happy making money in Kowloon.

There is no logic in Canada refusing the opportunity to even vet trades workers to determine their on-going ability to support not only their frigid Canadian neighbors but the departed Lebanese refugees and entrepreneurial Cantonese.        

There is shame in Canada promising a path to status for trades workers and then pulling the rug.

Given its 30 year track record in ignoring the consequences of failed adaptation policies, we can only hope that the courts and the community will drag Ottawa into 2016."

Richard Boraks, February 15 2016