The Ministry of the Interior has issued decrees on the fees charged by the police and the Finnish Immigration Service and on voluntary return assistance. The decrees will enter into force on 1 January 2020.

The action plan for incident prevention for the rescue services has been completed. The action plan defines the national targets for incident prevention and makes it into a stronger part of all rescue services activities.

The EU–Western Balkans Ministerial Forum on Justice and Home Affairs will take place in Skopje, North Macedonia, on 18–19 November 2019. Minister of Justice Anna-Maja Henriksson will chair the justice affairs session. Minister of the Interior Maria Ohisalo will chair the home affairs session.

Minister of the Interior Maria Ohisalo will attend the meeting of the Justice and Home Affairs Council in Luxembourg on 8 October. EU home affairs ministers will discuss migration, countering hybrid threats and counter-terrorism, among other topics. The discussions on fighting against terrorism and preventing violent extremism will stress the importance of tackling the phenomenon in all its forms, right-wing violent extremism and terrorism included. Ministers will also discuss the progress of the implementation of the regulation on the European Border and Coast Guard.

Legislation concerning the processing of personal data in the field of immigration administration to be collected into a single act. Government proposal on the Personal Data Act in the Field of Immigration Administration and related acts was given to parliament on 12 September.

The ability to prepare for extreme weather events will be increasingly important in the future. A European team of researchers has developed a role-playing game to help authorities plan their response to extreme weather events. Finland’s Presidency will test the game at a workshop for civil protection authorities focusing on chemical, radiological and hybrid threats as well as weather phenomena.

The State Secretary and Special Advisers to the Minister of the Interior Maria Ohisalo have been appointed. The State Secretary to the Minister will be Olli-Poika Parviainen. He holds a Master of Science and a Bachelor of Culture and Arts degrees.

The Ministry of the Interior examined the needs to develop gambling legislation. The pilot study assessed, for example, whether gambling harms could be reduced by using technical blocking measures to restrict gambling offerings against the Lotteries Act.

Written by the Ministry of the Interior, the Migration Review provides current information about developments in labour migration and the asylum-seeker situation as well as about recent legislative amendments.