Sök

16.4.2020 | The Ministry of the Interior has set up a legislative project aiming to assess the relationship between carbon offsetting activities and the Money Collection Act. Based on this assessment, the Money Collection Act will be amended to allow for voluntary carbon offsetting.

28.9.2021 | The Non-Discrimination Ombudsman investigated the residence permit practice relating to victims of human trafficking. One of the key questions of the study commissioned by the Ministry of the Interior and the Ministry of Economic Affairs and Employment was how the vulnerability of victims of human trafficking has been assessed. According to the study, the assessment was diverse, but varying. Hu...

17.10.2019 | Minister of the Interior Maria Ohisalo invited representatives of non-governmental organisations (NGOs) and the authorities to discuss honour-related violence and other restrictions on girls’ lives. Much has already been done to prevent honour-related violence, but the work must continue. Raising awareness and continuous training and cooperation among professionals are among the most important means of tackling the problem.

8.7.2021 | On Friday 9 July, the European Commission will hold a High-Level Forum on Resettlement & Refugee Protection to discuss the reception of quota refugees and ways to promote it. Finland will be represented by Minister of the Interior Maria Ohisalo.

16.4.2020 | Different parts of Finland are reporting engagement in activities by violent extremist movements. Violent non-parliamentary far right movements are active in the areas of all police departments. In some areas, there are also reports of activities of violent non-parliamentary far left groups, mainly anarchists and anti-fascists. These conclusions are presented in the new situation overview of violent extremism.

4.5.2018 | Finland is known around the world as a country with strong expertise in crisis management. Nearly half of the Finnish civilian crisis management experts come from the Ministry of the Interior’s branch of government. The strength of Finnish crisis management is the work done to promote the equality and the integrated approach, in other words cooperation between different parties in stabilising conflict-affected countries.

16.8.2019 | A draft for an action plan for accident prevention for the rescue services has been completed. The new action plan defines the national targets for accident prevention and makes it all the more a part of all rescue services activities.

12.8.2020 | The Ministry of the Interior has set up a working group tasked with identifying security threats to the premises of religious communities and drawing up proposals for improving safety and security.

30.6.2021 | Finland behöver en migrationspolitik som samlar olika aktörers ansvarsområden. Den 30 juni tillsatte inrikesministeriet ett projekt med uppgift att fastställa långsiktiga mål för Finlands övergripande migrationspolitik.

21.10.2020 | An action plan will be drawn up to prevent bullying. The programme's measures aim to make sure that it is safe for all children and young people to attend school. At their meeting on Wednesday 21 October, the Ministerial Working Group on Competence, Education, Culture and Innovation and the Ministerial Working Group on Child and Youth Policy decided to start preparing the programme.

10.7.2019 | 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.

20.12.2018 | The start of 2019 will see the entry into force of amendments to acts and decrees related to the police, immigration, rescue services and civilian crisis management. This press release provides a summary of the most important changes.

11.9.2020 | The Ministry of the Interior has launched an update of an action plan for preventing illegal entry and residence for 2021–2024. Along with the issues in the previous action plans, the new action plan will also examine the status of those residing in the country without a residence permit, the phenomena of abuse associated with them and the status of human trafficking victims.

23.2.2021 | The research project ordered by the Government surveys what types of complementary pathways for legal migration are available in different countries for use by people residing abroad who are in need of international protection. The focus is on work- and study-based pathways. This international comparison can help to support the consideration of the need of complimentary pathways in Finland as well as the international community’s efforts to find new solutions.

24.5.2021 | On 24 May, the Ministry of the Interior set up a project to carry out a study on a legislative amendment that would enable the granting of a temporary residence permit and an alien’s passport for a limited period to asylum seekers who have received a negative decision but who have found work. The purpose of the amendment would be to allow a person to travel to obtain a travel document from the authorities of their own country.

8.5.2020 | The Ministry of the Interior has appointed a rapporteur to produce policy recommendations aiming to prevent the increase in inequality and insecurity in society caused by the coronavirus epidemic. The Dean of the Faculty of Social Sciences of the University of Tampere, Professor Juho Saari, has been invited to the position.

18.3.2021 | The Ministry of the Interior and the Ministry of Economic Affairs and Employment have ordered a review of the grounds on which victims of human trafficking are granted residence permits. The review will be conducted by the Non-Discrimination Ombudsman acting as the national human trafficking rapporteur. The aim is to investigate how the Finnish Immigration Service applies the special regulation of the Aliens Act to the continuous residence permit granted to trafficking victims.

6.4.2018 | The Crisis Management Centre (CMC Finland), operating in connection with the Emergency Services College, will move from Kuopio to the Helsinki Metropolitan Area. On the other hand, rescue education will be provided in Kuopio when the operation of the Helsinki Rescue School will cease in connection with the regional government reform. In the future, all rescuers will be trained in Kuopio. Educat...

15.5.2019 | The working group for police cooperation between Finland and Russia met in Petrozavodsk, Russia on 14 May 2019.

23.10.2020 | A report on safety and security in sparsely populated areas has been completed. The report brings together up-to-date information on phenomena and challenges affecting safety and security in sparsely populated areas and lists five recommended measures to increase safety and sense of security in these areas. The report has been prepared in cooperation with the Harvaturva network, coordinated by the Ministry of the Interior.

4.5.2020 | A research project will examine the combined effects of the amendments to the Aliens Act and the practices of applying the Act with regard to the status of those requesting and receiving international protection. In particular, the project will examine whether the amendments have had an impact on safeguarding the best interests of the child.

27.11.2018 | Actions against hate speech and online bullying will be intensified through cooperation between an expert working group and public officials. The Ministry of the Interior, the Ministry of Justice and the Ministry of Education and Culture have together established a project to prepare proposals for more efficiently preventing hate speech punishable under the Criminal Code of Finland and harassment prohibited by law and for promoting a discussion culture that takes other people into consideration.

25.5.2018 | The European Commission will carry out a Schengen evaluation in Finland between May and June 2018. The evaluation teams coordinated by the Commission will visit Finnish authorities and evaluate whether the Schengen acquis is being applied correctly in all of its areas.

4.10.2018 | The operating conditions of the Crisis Management Centre Finland (CMC Finland) will be strengthened and the rights and responsibilities of experts deployed abroad will be clarified. On 4 October, the Government submitted a proposal to Parliament on the amendment of the Acts concerning civilian crisis management. The intention is for the amendments to enter into force on 1 January 2019.

2.12.2019 | An action plan on police traffic enforcement and traffic safety will be drawn up. The aim is to improve people's sense of security and the safety of people, the environment and property. The action plan will guide and direct the activities of the police, and it will take into account the changes that have occurred in traffic and traffic safety and the impacts of these changes.

16.2.2021 | A study commissioned by the Government investigated the combined impacts of the amendments made to the Aliens Act in 2015–2019 on the status of people applying for and receiving international protection and on the realisation of the best interests of the child. The decision to carry out the study was based on an objective set in the Government Programme, which states that the Government will investig...

28.9.2017 | A new type of residence permit is proposed for growth or startup entrepreneurs. At the same time, the application process for an extended permit would be simplified and the validity period of a first residence permit for specialists would be extended. The Government submitted a proposal for amending the Aliens Act to Parliament on 28 September.

4.5.2018 | The changes required by the EU Firearms Directive are being implemented in Member States. In Finland, the Directive causes changes particularly to the Firearms Act. The draft government proposal for implementing the Firearms Directive was circulated widely for comments on 4 May. The basis of the proposal is to prevent specially dangerous firearms and their components from falling into the wrong ha...

16.12.2019 | 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.

21.11.2019 | The Government has appointed a new Advisory Board on Gaming for the parliamentary term 2019–2023. According to the Lotteries Act, the task of the Advisory Board is to monitor the achievement of gambling policy goals and development needs in order to maintain and strengthen the exclusive right system.

31.5.2018 | The working group for police cooperation between Finland and Russia met in Tampere on 30 May 2018. This working group of experts meets once a year.

15.2.2017 | There is an increasing need for internal security expertise to plan and carry out civilian crisis management operations which aim at stabilising countries in conflict. This will be an effective way of preventing cross-border threats, such as the spread of organised crime, terrorism, human trafficking and uncontrolled migration.

31.1.2020 | The Ministry of the Interior has launched a project focused on a reform to the Lotteries Act. In line with the Government Programme, the goal is to determine any needs to reform the Lotteries Act, especially with an eye on further enhancing the prevention and reduction of the harmful effects of gambling. Moreover, legislative means to support the operating conditions of Veikkaus Oy and strengthen the exclusive right system will also be examined

7.1.2021 | On 7 January 2021, the Ministry of the Interior sent out for comments a proposal for reforming the Lotteries Act, which regulates gambling in Finland. The key points of the proposal include preventing the harm caused by gambling in an effective manner, combating marketing that violates the Lotteries Act, and securing Veikkaus Oy’s capacity to channel the demand for gambling. The basic premise of ...

13.9.2017 | The EU home affairs ministers will meet at the Justice and Home Affairs Council in Brussels on 14 September. They will discuss counter-terrorism action and assess the current situation following the recent terrorist attacks in Europe. Finland’s representative at the meeting will be Minister of the Interior Paula Risikko, who will give an update on the situation in Finland.

11.1.2019 | Research agency Owal Group has been selected to carry out an independent survey concerning the asylum procedure. The Ministry of the Interior selected Owal Group following a tendering process that began in November 2018. The survey, which will examine the asylum procedure in its entirety, is set to be completed in summer 2019.

5.9.2017 | Finland, Norway, Sweden and Russia are participating in a Barents Rescue Exercise in Petrozavodsk, Russia, between 4 and 8 September 2017. Barents Rescue Exercises are held every two years, and the previous one was organised in Finland in 2015. This year’s exercise is already the eighth of its kind.

16.5.2019 | In order to reduce the negative economic, social and health impacts of gambling, players are in future required to identify themselves when they play slot machines found in shops or kiosks, for example.

16.8.2019 | The Ministry of the Interior proposes a total of EUR 1.53 billion in appropriations for its administrative branch in 2020, which is around EUR 34.7 million more than in 2019.

16.4.2018 | The position and role of women and children in radical Islamist terrorist organisations are under special review in the new situation overview of violent extremism. According to the 2017 overview, more than half of the suspected crimes reported to the police where an extremist motive was indicated were associated with violent right-wing extremism.