By Shad Muhammad
HELSINKI, Finland - Nearly 6,000 Iraqi Kurds have in the past two years sought asylum in Finland, where authorities struggle to accommodate waves of refugees from Syria and the war-torn parts of Iraq.
Katarina Sohland, who is in charge of the Kola refugee camp in northern Finland, told Rudaw almost one in two asylum seekers from Iraq are of Kurdish origin. She said most of the arrivals have listed the deteriorating security situation in Iraq as the main reason they have sought asylum on their applications.
More than 100 municipalities in Finland have decided to accept refugees from Syria in the coming years, according to the United Nations refugee agency UNHCR.
“We have enormous problems to verify which country the Kurdish migrants come from,” Sohland told Rudaw, explaining the applicants’ chances of staying in Finland greatly depend on where in Iraq, Syria, Turkey or Iran they came from.
“We often establish that through our Kurdish linguists,” she said.
Rudaw met 22-year-old Bzhwen, who the left Kurdistan region three years ago and ended up in a Finish refugee camp over five months ago.
“I was a baker in my own hometown and earned much more than what I’m paid here,” Bzhwen, who did not give his last name, told Rudaw. “I want to study here, I couldn’t do that in Kurdistan.”
Although Bzhwen himself took the hard route to the West—through human traffickers who helped him from Turkey to Europe—he says most of his fellow Iraqi Kurds came to Europe with valid tourist visas on their Iraqi passports.
“You apply for a Schengen visa in a European embassy in Iraq or Kurdistan and you travel where you want in the EU,” said Soran Hasan, who is a Kurdish lawyer helping migrants with their applications in Finland.
Authorities say they have rejected applications from asylum seekers who came to Europe with a visa, which they can trace through fingertips.
“Most of those who come and seek asylum are between 18 and 25,” said Hasan. “If they have a fingertip record, which they often have when they apply for a visa, they will be deported.”
Some foreign consulates in Erbil grant applicants tourist or business visas, something unthinkable just over a decade ago when Kurds in Iraq migrated to Europe in large numbers fleeing political persecution and economic hardship.
The trend is the reverse now, as Iraqi Kurds migrate back to the Kurdistan region following the boom period after the 2003 Iraq invasion.
Just under 150,000 Syrians, many of them Kurds, have declared asylum in the European Union, while the member states have said they will give residence permits to another 33,000, according to the Migration Policy Center, which records refugee applications in the EU.
Over 3 million Syrians have fled to neighboring countries, including Iraqi Kurdistan, where an estimated 1.5 million refugees from Syria and Iraq have taken shelter.
HELSINKI, Finland - Nearly 6,000 Iraqi Kurds have in the past two years sought asylum in Finland, where authorities struggle to accommodate waves of refugees from Syria and the war-torn parts of Iraq.
Katarina Sohland, who is in charge of the Kola refugee camp in northern Finland, told Rudaw almost one in two asylum seekers from Iraq are of Kurdish origin. She said most of the arrivals have listed the deteriorating security situation in Iraq as the main reason they have sought asylum on their applications.
More than 100 municipalities in Finland have decided to accept refugees from Syria in the coming years, according to the United Nations refugee agency UNHCR.
“We have enormous problems to verify which country the Kurdish migrants come from,” Sohland told Rudaw, explaining the applicants’ chances of staying in Finland greatly depend on where in Iraq, Syria, Turkey or Iran they came from.
“We often establish that through our Kurdish linguists,” she said.
Rudaw met 22-year-old Bzhwen, who the left Kurdistan region three years ago and ended up in a Finish refugee camp over five months ago.
“I was a baker in my own hometown and earned much more than what I’m paid here,” Bzhwen, who did not give his last name, told Rudaw. “I want to study here, I couldn’t do that in Kurdistan.”
Although Bzhwen himself took the hard route to the West—through human traffickers who helped him from Turkey to Europe—he says most of his fellow Iraqi Kurds came to Europe with valid tourist visas on their Iraqi passports.
“You apply for a Schengen visa in a European embassy in Iraq or Kurdistan and you travel where you want in the EU,” said Soran Hasan, who is a Kurdish lawyer helping migrants with their applications in Finland.
Authorities say they have rejected applications from asylum seekers who came to Europe with a visa, which they can trace through fingertips.
“Most of those who come and seek asylum are between 18 and 25,” said Hasan. “If they have a fingertip record, which they often have when they apply for a visa, they will be deported.”
Some foreign consulates in Erbil grant applicants tourist or business visas, something unthinkable just over a decade ago when Kurds in Iraq migrated to Europe in large numbers fleeing political persecution and economic hardship.
The trend is the reverse now, as Iraqi Kurds migrate back to the Kurdistan region following the boom period after the 2003 Iraq invasion.
Just under 150,000 Syrians, many of them Kurds, have declared asylum in the European Union, while the member states have said they will give residence permits to another 33,000, according to the Migration Policy Center, which records refugee applications in the EU.
Over 3 million Syrians have fled to neighboring countries, including Iraqi Kurdistan, where an estimated 1.5 million refugees from Syria and Iraq have taken shelter.
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