Updated 29.9.2015
Several emergency accommodation facilities have been established for asylum seekers in the City of Turku during the past few weeks. These include the Perno school, the former Turku hostel, and the Runosmäki school as the newest addition starting next week. Meanwhile, the permanent reception centre in Pansio has been full for a long time. New asylum seekers are still constantly arriving to the city.
Asylum seekers who have come during September and October have been placed also elsewhere in Turku, in Finland Proper, Satakunta, and Uusimaa. After the opening of the organization centre in Tornio, significantly less asylum seekers have registered directly to the police in Turku. The asylum seekers who have come to Tornio have mainly been directed elsewhere in Finland, and at the same time the pressure to open emergency accommodations in Turku has eased.
The situation in the reception centre of the Finnish Red Cross in Turku has become stable so that not all the facilities prepared for emergency accommodation need to be opened at this point. Due to this, the Finland Proper division of the Finnish Red Cross and the City of Turku have agreed that the next facility to be prepared for emergency accommodation will be the Mäntykoti retirement home, because it is better suited to accommodation purposes than the schools in Runosmäki or Kastu. Mäntykoti will be ready to be opened in the end of the year after the alteration works.
The number of asylum seekers coming to Europe did not decrease though the Finnish Immigration Service has lowered its estimation about the number of asylum seekers coming to Finland during the end of autumn. The Finland Proper division of the Finnish Red Cross considers it a good thing that the City of Turku has facilities suitable for emergency accommodation also in future and that the city is prepared for the possible increase in the number of asylum seekers. The schools in Perno, Runosmäki, and Kastu are still suitable for these purposes.
The Turku City officials and persons in positions of trust have received plenty of enquiries, questions and feedback from the residents of the municipality regarding the exceptional situation. In order to relieve the need for information, a list of the most common questions and answers regarding the City of Turku has been compiled and it will be updated when new information becomes available. The site does not take a stand on questions regarding the areas of responsibility of the Finnish Immigration Service and the Finnish Red Cross.
Situation in Turku
On 1 September 2015 the Finland Proper division of the Finnish Red Cross asked the City of Turku for help with organizing emergency accommodation for asylum seekers arriving at the reception centre in Turku.
After the request from the Finland Proper division of the Finnish Red Cross, the City of Turku Property Management Division has mapped emergency accommodation options. Based on the mapping, Perno school, Kastu school, Runosmäki school, Niuskala nursing home, the former Turku hostel, and Mäntykoti retirement home have been selected as possible choices.
Turku City Board decided on 7 September 2015 that all mapped options are at the disposal of the Finnish Red Cross, and they will be prepared as emergency accommodation facilities. At the first phase the Perno school and the former Turku hostel were put into operation in the beginning of September.
The facilities of Runosmäki school will be opened for emergency accommodation during week 40 (28 September – 2 October) according to the decision of the City Board. A library operates in an annex of the Runosmäki school, but the school itself is empty. The school has around 20 classrooms, a lunch room, and a gym that can be converted into emergency accommodations.
Because of the immigrant issues concern several of the city’s divisions, it is appropriate that the responsibility for coordinating the immigrant matters belongs to one quarter. In Turku the matters are coordinated by the City Development Group of the Central Administration.
What is the difference between the reception centre in Pansio and the emergency accommodation facilities elsewhere in Turku?
The reception centre in Pansio is a unit that operates in permanent facilities, whereas the emergency accommodation units are temporary solutions in temporary facilities. Residents in emergency accommodations are transferred as soon as proper and more permanent reception units become ready. Emergency accommodations can only be abandoned when the actual reception centres have enough places for all asylum seekers.
Foreigners who have come to Finland and seek asylum from the police or the border authorities live in the reception centres. The reception services in Turku are organized by the Finnish Red Cross while the asylum applications are being processed. Currently there is one official reception centre in Turku. It is located in Pansio and it has places for 225 persons. All the places of the centre have been full for a long time.
The Finnish Immigration Service has established temporary emergency accommodation units because, in the present situation, the facilities of the permanent centres are not adequate compared to the number of asylum seekers. According to the Finnish Immigration Service, an emergency accommodation unit is not an independent reception centre, but instead it operates under the administration of an existing reception centre.
The reception centre in Turku and all the emergency accommodation facilities are upheld by the Finnish Red Cross.
Why is the Runosmäki school becoming an emergency accommodation facility?
The numbers of asylum seekers are so large at the moment that all municipalities and cities have been asked to chart all possible free facilities and to offer them for emergency accommodation. The Runosmäki school is free and suitable for emergency accommodation with regard to personal safety, as well as shower and toilet facilities.
How come the asylum seekers are being accommodated at the Runosmäki school when it could not be used as a school for children?
The school had indoor air issues which caused the personnel to be constantly on sick leaves. The students had hardly any symptoms. Short-term use of the facilities (accommodation) will not pose a health hazard. The idea is that the asylum seekers accommodate at the facilities only temporarily and transfer to the proper reception centres as soon as possible.
Asylum seekers will be accommodated into rooms where no moisture problems have been found. They will not be accommodated into rooms where moisture problems have been found.
Why the children could not stay partly at the Runosmäki school?
It was difficult to find substitute teachers because the teachers were afraid of the indoor air problems. When a lot of teachers were absent the school could not guarantee good quality teaching and the safety of the students anymore. The Education Division made a decision about transferring the school because there was room in the nearby schools.
Can the children return to the Runosmäki school after the asylum seeker situation has calmed down?
No, they cannot, there are other plans for the area and the emergency accommodations are a temporary solution. It would cost several millions of euros to renovate the facilities for school use. The schools in the Runosmäki area will have overcapacity starting from 2018 even without the Runosmäki school. All comprehensive school students living in Runosmäki will fit into the Lyseo school starting from August 2018.
The temporary change of use is valid for five years, unless an extension is applied for or given. Permanent solutions would require bigger repairs of both structures and technical systems.
Which facilities will be used for emergency accommodation after the Runosmäki school?
In the next phase the Kastu school and Mäntykoti retirement home will be used for emergency accommodation. The City of Turku operates on schedule with the requests coming from the Finnish Red Cross.
How many emergency accommodation places are there in total?
There are places for 150 people in Perno, 224 people in Runosmäki, approximately 160-200 people in Kastu, and for about 150 people in Mäntykoti.
What will this all cost to Turku?
The state will pay all the expenses of the reception centre. The municipality can apply for compensation for organizing the early phase integration services. Also the expenses and upkeep of the emergency accommodations are paid by the state.
Why does the city not organize receptions at train stations for the arriving asylum seekers, and food and toilets at police stations?
The Finnish Immigration Service is responsible for asylum seekers as they come to the city, and the Finnish Red Cross is responsible for organizing emergency accommodations. The City of Turku is doing its best to find facilities for emergency accommodation. The distribution of responsibilities has been agreed with the Finnish Red Cross, and these are the arrangements in all cities where asylum seekers are now coming.
The City of Turku comes in at the integration phase of the asylum seekers, that is, after they get their residence permits. However, in the new situation the city organizes and coordinates recreational activities for the asylum seekers, for example in Pansio, together with many third sector actors.
The Turunmaa district of the Finnish Red Cross has started to give help to the asylum seekers at the Turku police station.
Has the City of Turku increased security services, for example from security companies, because of the recently arrived asylum seekers?
Security services are acquired as outsourced services and they have been intensified at need. In the last resort, the holder of the facilities, in this case the Finnish Red Cross, not the city, is responsible for the possible surveillance and the resulting costs.
What services the City of Turku offers to the asylum seekers?
The reception centre (maintained by the Finnish Red Cross in Turku) is responsible for the services offered to the people in the process of asylum seeking. In Turku the Immigrant Services, which operates under the Welfare Division, is responsible for the initial guidance, counselling, open social welfare, and basic health care services of the asylum seekers who have received their residence permits and who have moved from the reception centre to their own apartments either independently or through the Centre for Economic Development, Transport and the Environment (the ELY Centre).
When an asylum seeker has received their residence permit, the other divisions of the city will offer them the same services as for other municipal residents, as stipulated by the law.
General information: