A planned reform of the EU’s system for dealing with asylum seekers got a cool reception from politicians asked about the planon Friday during Yle’s Aamu TV programme.
Interior Minister Kai Mykkänen of the centre-right National Coalition Party, Green MP Ville Niinistö and anti-immigrant populist Finns Party leader Jussi Halla-aho took part in the discussion of European Union plans to impose an obligatory asylum seeker burden-sharing programme that would re-distribute asylum seekers in the EU.
European Union countries will likely soon be voting on a directive that obliges them to share the load of incoming asylum seekers to southern European countries or, alternatively, provide the countries facing the largest burden with financial support. The EU has been trying to find a suitable agreement on asylum seekers since 2015, when over one million people arrived in Europe and claimed asylum.
Finland’s Interior Minister Kai Mykkänen says the crux of the problem as far as Finland and Europe are concerned is the so-called Dublin Regulation, which seeks to regulate the unchecked migration of non-registered refugees in Europe. He says it is essential to jointly agree on the rules on how the EU member states can support the border countries hit hardest by the crisis.
“It would be in Finland’s best interests that we have clear rules in place, and not slapdash solutions, for dealing with future crises. We are still working on how this can be done,” he said.