“The chances of getting asylum are minimal”: a Russian described the legalization procedure in Europe

Due to the influx of migrants from the countries of the Middle East, Finland has closed border checkpoints on the border with Russia, except for one – the Raya-Jooseppi-Lotta checkpoint in the Murmansk region. However, some refugees still managed to cross the border and enter Europe. What awaits these people in Finland – in the MK material.

In Arab chats, where refugees share information about the current situation on the Russian-Finnish border, they write that several dozen people have made it to Finland.

When chat participants asked to talk about what was happening on the European side, there was silence.

Someone explains that in Finland, migrants’ phones are temporarily taken away.

What is happening in the Finnish migration camp was once told to me by a Russian who managed to obtain asylum in 2019. It took him two years.

“I had everything fine with my documents – both my international passport and a Finnish visa,” the man said. “I flew to Helsinki, went to the police and asked for asylum. I was photographed and fingerprinted.

Then the Russian was sent to a migration camp, where he lived for six months: “I was constantly called in for interrogations, where I told my entire biography in detail. My information was carefully checked. You can’t cheat.”

According to the man, in two years he changed three migration camps.

— There are few refugees in Finland, therefore there are few camps. My first camp was near Helsinki. In essence, it was a hotel. The rooms accommodated 2-3 people, quite comfortably. Then I was sent to a camp where conditions were more harsh – 10 people lived in a room, sleeping on bunk beds. The camp itself was located in the forest.

Along with the Russian, refugees from Iran, Iraq, and Syria lived in the camp.

“These people weren’t particularly frank.” As I understand it, many of them invented legends for themselves in order to stay in Finland and then go to Germany or France. These were quickly identified and deported from the country. In general, refugees are not particularly welcome in Finland; the country is small and it is expensive to support them. Therefore, the chance of receiving asylum is minimal. While you are in the migration camp, you can work, for example, as a cleaner or wash dishes in the dining room. If a person is denied asylum, then there is an option to find a job and stay in the country on a work visa.

Those who are waiting for their application to obtain status are paid a small allowance. If a person has already received asylum, the state continues to pay money and pay rent for several years.

— I spend 600 euros on housing, 400 of which are paid by the state. Plus, I get paid a minimum allowance of 500 euros. Those who do not integrate well into the country are paid more. If a refugee officially gets a job, he no longer receives benefits.

According to the Russian, refugee status is valid for four years. During this time, a person must learn the language, find a job and can apply for citizenship.

“People are desperate”

It is known that in recent days more than a hundred refugees from Africa and the Middle East have been detained who were trying to get to Finland. Now they are in the temporary detention center for foreign citizens of the Ministry of Internal Affairs of the Republic of Karelia. They will be expelled from the country.

“Dozens of refugees from Syria turned to us for help. “Everyone has expired visas,” says one of the lawyers who undertook to help the migrants. “Some were detained in Karelia, others in the Murmansk region. Among the detainees there is a woman with children. They don’t want to return to their homeland, it’s not safe there. There is a war going on in Yemen, everyone is being drafted into the army. They would be happy to stay in Russia, but they are not given asylum here – this decision was made by our migration authorities. At the beginning of the year, we had two officially recognized refugees from Syria, now there are zero. And Yemeni citizens are not granted asylum at all. According to our data, 56 thousand people have temporary asylum in Russia, of which 54 thousand are immigrants from Ukraine and only 2 thousand from other countries.

Now the refugees who are at the checkpoint in the Murmansk region are in despair. To what extent do people need to be driven so that they ride children’s bicycles to the border, live in tents, sit in the cold. They have no prospect of legalization in Russia, and they are not allowed into Finland. People were caught between a rock and a hard place.