The Finnish Immigration Service (Migri) announced on Thursday that it is ending contracts with operators of eight reception centres and reducing the number of beds in another reception centre.
"The reception centres whose contracts are now terminated will be closed down, the need for reception capacity has reduced further and the available accommodation capacity is sufficient," Migri's reception union head of section, Heikki Väätämöinen, said in a press release.
There are currently around 46,000 people registered as clients in Finland's reception centre system, according to Migri. About 37 percent of those people live in private accommodations while 13 percent live in municipal accommodations.
Most of the system's clients have fled from Ukraine, which has been under attack by Russia for more than 16 months.
After the new closures, Finland will have 113 reception centres, as well as 10 other similar facilities for underage minors.
The closures affect reception centres in cities and municipalities including: Mikkeli, Forssa, Jyväskylä, Iisalmi, Rovaniemi, Kuusamo, Sipoo and Siikajoki. There are just over 1,500 beds at those facilities.
Meanwhile there will be a reduction of 200 beds at the reception centre in Kuusankoski, according to Migri.
In May, Migri announced plans to open 17 new reception centres. In Thursday's press release, the agency said that a competitive tendering process had resulted in the procurement of all 17 centres.
7.7: Corrected names of municipalities.
