Ombudsman warns Finland's refugee quota plan discriminatory to Muslims

By Leila Nezirevic

LONDON (AA) - Finland’s Non-Discrimination Ombudsman warned Thursday that the country’s refugee quota plan is likely discriminatory on religious grounds.

The assessment came after the government announced that it will reduce the number of refugees accepted from Muslim-majority countries while increasing the number from Christian countries.

According to the Ombudsman, the Interior Ministry’s instruction to prepare the quota plan conflicts with the Finnish Constitution as well as laws on discrimination.

“The Interior Ministry instructed officials to prepare the quota refugee plan for 2025 in a way that is in conflict with the prohibition of discrimination in the Constitution and laws on discrimination,” said Deputy Non-Discrimination Ombudsman Robin Harris.

The country’s Interior Minister, Mari Rantanen, and acting Interior Minister Lulu Ranne had directed officials to prepare to exclude quota refugees from countries such as Afghanistan while increasing the number of those from Venezuela, the local newspaper Helsingin Sanomat reported.

In July, the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) suggested that Finland should prioritize quota refugees from Afghanistan and Syria, according to the Ombudsman’s statement.

“However, the political leadership of the Ministry of the Interior instructed officials to prepare a quota distribution that deviates from the UNHCR proposal so that Christian refugees would be prioritized and places would be allocated to refugees from the Democratic Republic of Congo and Venezuela, for example,” the statement said.

The warning follows the Ombudsman’s announcement in October that it will investigate the ministry’s refugee quota plans.