Finland is suspending its development cooperation with Somalia. The decision follows the Finnish government’s policy that development aid will only be provided to countries that accept the return of their nationals whose asylum applications have been deemed unfounded. Somalia has not fulfilled this requirement.
According to Finland's Minister for Development Cooperation and Foreign Trade Ville Tavio (Finns Party), who announced the decision, “Suspension means that no new funding decisions related to the country program will be made until there is concrete progress in return cooperation with Somalia. I believe it wouldn’t take very long if sufficient will exists.”
He further stated, “Now we are suspending funding for the country program and hope it can resume with minimal disruption. In other words, we hope to move forward through cooperation.” This indicates that Finland views development cooperation with Somalia positively but expects reciprocity on migration issues.
The ball is now in the Somali government’s court, which has two options. The first is to accept both Finland’s development aid and the return of Somali nationals being repatriated from Finland for various reasons. The second option is to refuse to accept deportees and try to manage without Finnish development aid.
It remains to be seen which option Somalia will choose. If the latter, Finland and Finnish taxpayers will save nearly ten million euros annually. If the former, Finland will achieve the removal of illegal immigrants and continue to support Somalia in building a more functional society.
From Finland’s perspective, the first option also has the benefit of potentially serving as a model for development cooperation with other countries that send large numbers of migrants to the EU. This, in turn, could help curb the influx of illegal immigration into Finnish society from elsewhere.
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I do not have any great hopes. Even if Somalia wellcomes those people unwellcomed to Finland, after a few weeks those same people will be back on the Finnish borders applying for an asylum.
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