Nearly 70 percent of Iraqi asylum seekers in Finland whose applications were processed last year have abandoned their claims, with many returning home instead, officials said Friday.
“They have told us that family issues in their home country force them to go back. Some have found the Finnish atmosphere hostile and some have not stayed because of the dark autumn and cold winter,” said Juha Simila, head of asylum department at the Finnish Immigration Service.
One Iraqi who decided to return said Finland was different from what he had expected.
“I don’t know what happens to me in Iraq but here I will die mentally,” Tareq Thajeel Ajaj from southern Iraq told Finland’s largest daily Helsingin Sanomat in December.