Finland is set to receive up to 15,000 asylum seekers in 2015, four times higher than last year, the interior ministry said Thursday.
The new projection does not mean that Finland will increase the number of asylums it grants, which in recent years has been set at between 750 and 1,050 a year.
"The most recent estimates from the Finnish Immigration Service suggest that the number of those applying for asylum in Finland this year might go up to as many as 15,000," the ministry said in a statement.
Last year, Finland received 3,600 asylum seekers, a fraction of the 626,000 applications registered across the European Union.
The increase is due to a number of crises in Africa and the Middle East, the ministry said.
The eurosceptic and populist Finns Party, one of the three parties in a coalition in power since May, said it had seen this coming.
"For years we have warned about the rise in the expenses related to asylum seekers and now the problem is at hand," chairman of the Finns Party's parliamentary group, Sampo Terho, said in a statement.
Following the rise in asylum applications, the Finnish Immigration Service and the police are recruiting more personnel and new reception centres are being set up since the existing ones are full.
Finland is set to receive up to 15,000 asylum seekers in 2015, four times higher than last year, the interior ministry said Thursday.
The new projection does not mean that Finland will increase the number of asylums it grants, which in recent years has been set at between 750 and 1,050 a year.
“The most recent estimates from the Finnish Immigration Service suggest that the number of those applying for asylum in Finland this year might go up to as many as 15,000,” the ministry said in a statement.
Last year, Finland received 3,600 asylum seekers, a fraction of the 626,000 applications registered across the European Union.
The increase is due to a number of crises in Africa and the Middle East, the ministry said.
The eurosceptic and populist Finns Party, one of the three parties in a coalition in power since May, said it had seen this coming.
“For years we have warned about the rise in the expenses related to asylum seekers and now the problem is at hand,” chairman of the Finns Party’s parliamentary group, Sampo Terho, said in a statement.
Following the rise in asylum applications, the Finnish Immigration Service and the police are recruiting more personnel and new reception centres are being set up since the existing ones are full.
