Parliament's Constitutional Law Committee has given its backing to a so-called deportation bill, a controversial piece of proposed legislation that would allow Finnish border authorities to refuse to accept asylum applications under certain circumstances.
The bill is seen as a response to Russia's use of 'instrumentalised migration' — the deliberate funnelling of asylum seekers to Finland's border checkpoints.
This is the second time the committee has approved the wording and content of the law change, having previously given the bill a green light on a vote of 15-2 in June.
The proposed reform has however garnered much criticism, both at home and abroad, with over 200 university researchers calling for it to be quashed and the Council of Europe's Commissioner for Human Rights, Michael O'Flaherty, saying the draft bill "raises a number of significant human rights concerns".
The bill also divided opinion within the Constitutional Law Committee, with Green Party MP Fatim Diarra and Anna Kontula of the Left Alliance submitting a joint dissenting opinion. In their view, the amendments made to the bill since it was last before the committee were not sufficient.
The majority vote in favour of the bill means it will now return to Parliament's Administration Committee on Monday, ahead of a vote by MPs later next week.
As the bill represents an emergency exception to the Finnish constitution, it must be approved by five-sixths of MPs in the parliamentary vote.
A survey by newspaper group Uutissuomalainen found that nearly two-thirds of respondents were in favour of the law change.
