The Finnish Foreign Ministry will temporarily cease its aid programme for development cooperation with Somalia. The East African country has not cooperated with requests from the European Union member state to take back its citizens who currently reside illegally inside the Nordic nation.
At a press conference on Wednesday, November 20th, Minister for Foreign Trade and Development Ville Tavio stated:
The suspension means that no new funding decisions concerning the country programme will be made until we see concrete progress in readmissions cooperation with Somalia.
The migration question, described as ‘readmissions cooperation,’ is being presented as one of the few policy issues straining the otherwise strong bilateral working relationship between two nations. Finland’s Government Report on International Economic Relations and Development Cooperation makes it clear that aid can resume if Somalia responds adequately to Finnish requests to implement an acceptable returns process.
“Return cooperation has not reached a sufficient level,” Tavio said. “States must naturally strive to ensure that all those illegally in their country are returned when that can be done safely.”
Tavio, a Finns Party MP, said that the change in rules would not apply to humanitarian aid and outlined several other funding strands that would be subject to temporary or permanent exemptions from the policy change. In a typical year, €8–9 million is set aside for bilateral development cooperation.
Finnish MEP Sebastian Tynkkynen welcomed the decision in a post on X, declaring, “After passing Europe’s toughest border security bill to counter weaponized migration, our next step is to remove illegal immigrants.”
He added that Finland is “leading the way for the whole of Europe.”
The weaponised migration Tynkkynen refers to involves Russia and Belarus directing migrant flows across EU borders.
