ULAANBAATAR (Sputnik), Svetlana Alexandrova — Finnish Interior Minister Petteri Orpo said on Monday the country would bolster its border control in the north of the country amid the EU migrant crisis.
"We also might need to consider defining a list of countries in the Middle East and North Africa that are safe for return of those migrants who are economic migrants," Mattila said during the the Organization for Security and Co-operation in Europe Parliamentary Assembly (OSCE PA) session in Ulaanbaatar.
According to her, intensifying the boarder checking is something Finland and the European Union should introduce as a measure to control refugee crises.
"Finland is not ready to host all migrants arriving to the country in a daily basis. There is a limit. The Finland's quota is about 2400 asylum seekers, but we already have 7000 migrants. We don't have plans right now to increase the quota, but may be some deduction will be taken at the ministerial level within the EU talks," Finnish parliamentarian said.
Europe is struggling with a large-scale refugee crisis, as hundreds of thousands of asylum seekers from crisis-torn countries in Africa and the Middle East seek a safe haven in EU member states.
On Thursday, the European Parliament backed the European Commission's proposal to relocate a total of 160,000 refugees throughout EU member states over the next two years.
Finland is expected to accept 2,398 migrants – or 2 percent of the total to be relocated to the other EU members – currently residing in Greece, Italy and Hungary.
According to media reports last week, Helsinki plans to toughen its migration policy and considers tightening immigration criteria for those arriving in the country to reunite with their families.
