The Estonian and Finnish Ministries of the Interior reached an agreement whereby Finland would receive up to 100 Ukrainian war refugees per week, if the refugees express their wish to do so.
The Minister of the Interior Lauri Läänemets said that with Russia’s aggression against Ukraine continuing and the brunt of the warfare being directed against the civilian population, Estonia has been receiving a continuous stream of refugees. “So far, we have been able to offer all the refugees sufficient support and services, but as new refugees continue arriving, we appealed for help from our Northern neighbour well ahead of time. Over the last few weeks, we have reached an agreement on how the moving of refugees to Finland could take place, and soon Finland would be expecting up to one hundred refugees a week from us. These refugees would then be able to apply for temporary protection immediately upon their arrival to Finland. I would like to emphasise that moving on to Finland is just an option we offer, it is not something we pressure people into, and even less an obligation. Those who prefer to remain in Estonia, for example because they have families or relatives here, will naturally have that option. Having said that, for many war refugees, moving on to Finland is a welcome prospect,” Läänemets explained.
The Minister of the Interior sees the support from Finland foremost as a means of avoiding a situation where the increased influx of refugees would stretch the assistance capabilities of Estonia to the limit and lower the quality of support services – in health care or education system, for example – which would be equally detrimental to war refugees and the local permanent residents. “This is a situation that we must most definitely avoid and prevent,” Läänemets stressed.
The Undersecretary for Internal Security of the Ministry of the Interior Veiko Kommusaar admitted that no one might be interested on some weeks and there might be more than one hundred on others. “In that case we will be flexible and offer people the option of going a week or two later when there is less interest. Transport is currently planned for two days a week, on Tuesdays and Thursdays,” Kommusaar explained. He added that cooperation with the Finnish has been excellent and that the two countries have been offering every kind of assistance to the victims of Putin’s aggression.
The Head of Crisis Management Department in Estonian Social Insurance Board Vadim Ivanov affirmed that the Board was ready to assist and support all the refugees arriving to Estonia. “Since the start of the war, we have offered shelter and every kind of assistance to all the war refugees who have needed it. We currently have around 2,000 refugees in short-term housing. However, it has become evident that many other state services are starting to reach their limits,” Ivanov said. “Our information desks are manned with competent employees who advise the refugees who are already living in Estonia as well as the new arrivals who might be interested in moving to Finland. We can advise on the latter as soon as there is comprehensive information about what is on offer in Finland,” Ivanov added.
The target group is expected to consist mainly of those Ukrainian citizens who have not yet received temporary protection or a valid residence permit in Estonia or any other country. In case they have a valid residence permit, they must first yield it and apply again in Finland. However, the target group excludes persons who do not have the right for temporary protection or other citizens of third countries, unless they are family members of a war refugee from Ukraine. The same goes for unaccompanied minors and people with special needs whose moving to Finland would be too complicated.
Among the war refugees who have arrived in Estonia, nearly 66,000 have declared their wish to remain here, and 42,000 have applied for temporary protection. The numbers of Ukrainian war refugees arriving to Estonia have been decreasing lately; during the last month, there have been less than one hundred daily entries on most days.
