By submission of 6 March 2025 to the Parliament, the Government proposed amendments to the Aliens Act on the following:
- with the aim of improving efficiency of examination of asylum applications, the transcript of the asylum interview would no longer be reviewed at the end of the interview, but it would be as additional evidence that could be included in the application file. The measure aims at introducing stricter provisions and best practices, in line with the Qualification Directive and the Asylum Procedures Directive.
- restrictions will be imposed on the possibility to travel and visit the country of origin: i) clarification on the impact of travelling to the country of origin on the decision to withdraw protection status and ii) restrictions on the validity of travel documents issued by Finland to beneficiaries of international protection, namely not to use them to travel to their country of origin or former country of permanent residence. Derogations would be possible only based on exceptionally serious grounds.
- the enforcement of return decisions would be streamlined with the aim for deportation decisions to be enforced more quickly than at present.
Example: If an alien has not yet had a residence permit and a decision is made to remove them from the country, they will be denied admittance or stay. If, on the other hand, an alien has or has had a residence permit and a decision is made to remove them from the country, this constitutes deportation. The proposed amendment would apply to cases such as where a person subject to a return order applies for international protection to delay being removed from the country.
4. the Ministry of the Interior is preparing a legislative project to assess whether the regulation on deportation and denial of admittance or stay can be more extensively harmonised. This government proposal is scheduled to be submitted to Parliament at the beginning of 2026 at the latest.
The intention is to have these amendments entering into force as soon as possible.