For refugees seeking for asylum, The United Nations High Commission for Refugees, UNHCR, an organization of the United Nations has established a Quota Asylum Program that does not require applicants to be physically present in the destination country before they can apply. For ease, refugees can apply for this program right there in their country of residence.
HOW THE FINLAND QUOTA ASYLUM PROGRAMME WORKS
Finland is one of the countries covered by the UNHCR Quota Asylum Program. How the program operates is that the UNHCR assigns a quota of refugees which is a maximum number of applicants a participating country can take on for Asylum.
For Finland, the assigned quota of refugees is 750. This means that each year, Finland can accept and grant up to 750 applications for asylum in its territories. All of those accepted can be sure that they’ll be well catered for as soon as they land in Finland.
It should however be noted that the UNHCR is responsible for choosing the 750 applicants to be assigned to Finland. This means that all applications must be routed through the High Commission.
BASIC REQUIREMENTS FOR APPLYING UNDER THE QUOTA ASYLUM PROGRAM
As with every organized system, there are terms and conditions that govern the application for asylum under the Quota Asylum Program in Finland. Below are some of them:
- As an applicant, you must be a refugee displaced outside your country of origin.
- Your records must certify that you’re not a threat in any way to Finland if you gain entry.
- Every refugee must be ready to avoid any display of rebellion but rather settle peacefully into the Finnish society.
One last thing to bear in mind is that the interviews for the Quota Asylum applications are not conducted at the Finnish Embassy but rather at designated UNHCR centers or at settlement refugee camps.
