After the start of the war of aggression against Russia, the spike in asylum applications from Russians that came to Finland has stopped.
Last year, 1,172 Russians applied for asylum in Finland.
This year, by the beginning of August, there have been 270 asylum applications from Russians.
– Last year there was a small spike in the number of Russian asylum seekers compared to previous years, states the regional manager of the asylum unit of the Immigration Office Juha Similä.
Now we are at the usual level of 200–500 annual asylum applications from Russia.
According to the statistics of the Finnish Immigration Service, 85 Russians received asylum in Finland last year, this year the figure is 64.
According to Similä, in a large number of asylum applications made by Russians, the application criteria are related to the partial business launch in Russia that started in September a year ago.
– We are not yet able to make decisions on these applications, because the European Union Asylum Agency (EUAA) is currently preparing related guidelines, Similä says.
Last year, 3,097 Russians applied for their first work-based residence permit. Now, only 905 applications have accumulated since the beginning of the year.
Last year and this year, 21,179 Russians have applied for another residence permit in Finland. Almost half of these were first residence permits.
At the end of last year, almost 94,000 native speakers of Russian lived in Finland. Russian speakers are the largest group of foreign speakers in Finland. According to Statistics Finland, more than 33,000 Russian-speakers living in Finland are Russian citizens.