Finnish Immigration Service Migri announced on Friday that it will temporarily suspend decision-making regarding rejected residence permits for Palestinians.
Yle News reported on Thursday that Fayez Bassalat, a Palestinian project engineer, received a deportation notice from Migri last month.
The decision to deport Bassalat followed a change to section 35 of Finland's immigration laws last year, which introduced a general requirement for a valid national travel document.
"The requirement for a 'national document' was not there before," Johanna Waal, Migri's Director, Legal and Specialist Services Unit, told Yle News in an interview on Thursday.
Under Migri's interpretation, as Finland has not recognised the state of Palestine, Palestinian passports are not considered valid national travel documents.
Migri told Yle News on Thursday that it is now reconsidering the interpretation. "Whether our discussion leads to changes in practice is not yet possible to predict," Waal had added.
In its statement on Friday, Migri said that it can only influence a law’s content by submitting statements during the preparation phase. The agency added that it had, during this period, highlighted both the need for equal treatment of stateless persons and for clear, unambiguous legislation. However, Migri's statement noted that its input did not affect the law as approved by Parliament.
According to Migri, everyone who has received a negative residence permit or deportation decision has the right to appeal.
"During the appeal process, authorities generally do not carry out deportation, unless it involves, for example, a criminal-based removal," the statement read.
Researchers' union appeals to government
Finland’s Union of Academic Researchers and Teachers released a separate statement on Friday, saying tightened immigration policies threaten Palestinian researchers in Finland.
The union urged the government to rectify the situation and direct Migri to recognise Palestinian passports as equivalent to national travel documents, as is currently the policy adopted by the Finnish Ministry for Foreign Affairs.
"We are aware of several Palestinian researchers who have legally come to Finland to conduct scientific research and pursue higher education, including doctoral studies. Their continued stay in Finland is now completely uncertain because Migri no longer accepts Palestinian passports for identity verification," said Nina Hahtela, Executive Director at the Union of Research Professionals.
She added that nothing in the researchers’ own actions or circumstances has changed, as they continue to pursue doctoral degrees while employed by Finnish universities.
According to Hahtela, it is "completely unreasonable" that international experts who are legally residing in Finland now face the threat of deportation due to the government’s rushed tightening of the law.
"Considering the international context, it is particularly irresponsible that Palestinians — whose people face, according to many international scholars, a risk of genocide in their homeland — are the ones affected," she said.
Yle News reporter Matthew Schilke spoke to Fayez Bassalat about the deportation notice he received from Migri.
