Since 2023, Finland’s right-wing government has tightened immigration rules, resulting in a surge in deportations and growing fears among undocumented migrants who could face persecution in their home countries. Stricter requirements for asylum, residence permits, and family reunification, along with closer scrutiny of applicants, have resulted in a decline in both work-related immigration and asylum approvals.
Finland's tougher stance on immigration has triggered a surge in deportations, prompting concern among undocumented migrants who risk facing danger if deported to their home countries.
Between January and September 2025, approximately 2,070 foreign nationals were deported, a 30 percent increase compared with the same period in 2024, according to data from Finland’s National Police Board.
Chief Superintendent Janne Lepsu said foreigners' right of residence in Finland is now being "investigated more closely," French news agency AFP reported on November 1.
"If it is found that a foreign national does not have this right, every effort will be made to ensure that they leave Finland or the Schengen area," he said. Estimates suggest there are between 3,500 and 5,000 undocumented people living in Finland in recent years.
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Finland intensifies deportations and tightens residence permit approvals
As of 2024, undocumented migrants are unable to apply for work in Finland; they must do so instead from their home country.
Finland is also stepping up the enforcement of deportation orders, even when individuals have appealed their rejected asylum applications, according to the Immigration Service's director of Control and Monitoring, Tirsa Forssell.
Finnish Immigration Service spokesman Johannes Hirvela added that "Negative decisions on residence permit applications are now more common than before," AFP reported.
Migrants increasingly worry about deportation following rise of right-wing government
Toivon talo, or "House of Hope," is a day center in the Finnish capital of Helsinki where undocumented migrants can seek legal, social, and medical help, as well as receive lunches and engage in social activities. The center, run by a Christian organization and volunteers, supports migrants who remain in Finland after their asylum applications have been rejected or their residence permits or visas have expired or been denied.
Anne Hammad, the project manager behind Toivon talo, says she has witnessed a growing number of people fearing deportation since Finland’s right-wing government, led by Prime Minister Petteri Orpo, began tightening immigration policies in 2023. Migrants in vulnerable situations also fear returning to their home countries for various reasons, she told AFP.
Most visitors at Toivon talo are men aged 30 to 45 from Morocco, Somalia, or Iraq, but the center also serves families, children, elderly individuals, and victims of human trafficking, representing over 40 non-EU nationalities.
"My situation is very, very, very difficult," says one Moroccan woman in her fifties and a social worker. She told AFP she came to Finland in early 2024 to find work but failed to do so during the 90-day period that third-country nationals can stay without a residence permit.
"I can't go back to Morocco, because I'm now divorced and when my ex-husband finds out that I'm back... He can be aggressive," she said. The woman had been ordered to leave Finland in November, according to AFP.
Building 'secure life' in Finland 'not the case anymore'
Since 2023, Finland has introduced stricter requirements for obtaining asylum, residence permits, family reunification, and citizenship, though Helsinki says the country welcomes work-based immigration.
The government wants to improve migration management mechanisms, strengthen internal security, and align Finland's immigration policy with other Nordic countries.
Around 11 percent of Finland's population of 5.6 million had a non-Finnish background as of 2024, with the number growing steadily during the 2000s, according to Statistics Finland.
Though the figure is still higher than in the 2010s, both work-related immigration and asylum applications have fallen in recent years.
"We have considerably tightened our immigration policy. We can probably even talk about a paradigm shift in this regard," Finland's Interior Minister Mari Rantanen told AFP.
Erna Bodström, a researcher at the Migration Institute of Finland, told AFP that "before, it was possible to build a secure life in Finland for more immigrants… But that is not the case anymore."
With AFP