The history of Red Cross reception operations

The district-run reception centre operations by the Red Cross provide assistance and protection to vulnerable people. Our organisation has long experience and strong expertise in welcoming asylum seekers and meeting their basic needs.

The operations of the Red Cross are guided by the organisation’s most important principle: helping people in need. At the reception units, the Red Cross takes care of the accommodation of the asylum seekers, distributes food and provides urgent health checks for them.

The initial agreement between the Finnish Red Cross and the authorities for preparing for immigration dates from 1988. The agreement was made with the then National Board of Social Welfare, which was responsible for refugee affairs at the time.

The Red Cross’s operating structure and unique network of workers and volunteers made it possible to establish a hundred new reception units all over Finland in the autumn of 2015 and in early 2016. Many parties, including the senior management of the Ministry of the Interior, have stated that the large-scale reception of asylum seekers would not have been possible without the Red Cross. This was an example of a situation that the Red Cross had trained and prepared for.

The starting point of reception operations was that the operations are arranged by an organisation capable of meeting the objectives and requirements defined for the operations by the authorities. The Red Cross is a society under public law which is particularly well suited for the purpose of reception operations, as its strengths include its statutory assignment to support the authorities, its agile decision-making system, the sufficient structures and competence for launching and maintaining the operations (including the extensive network of Red Cross volunteers), and the value base and mandate of the organisation.

In March 2022, the Red Cross started to set up new reception units at the request of the Finnish Immigration Service in order to help people fleeing Ukraine. In May 2022, the Red Cross was already maintaining 42 reception units across Finland. In December 2022, the number of reception centres was 52.
Very rapid actions were required in these circumstances with a sudden influx of migrants. Due to this, the Finnish Immigration Service decided to found the reception centres by direct procurement. The Red Cross had experience in maintaining reception operations. They had also prepared and trained for such situations of large-scale immigration in advance.

Currently, reception operations are provided through a competitive tendering process. Under the Ministry of the Interior, the Finnish Immigration Service guides, plans and monitors the reception system and its costs. Currently, the Finnish Red Cross districts maintain five reception centres in different parts of Finland. 

Costs of reception operations

The Finnish Red Cross is a non-profit, charitable institution. Any funds potentially generated by the reception centre operations will be used in the long term to maintain the Red Cross’s readiness and preparedness and for other humanitarian activities.

The providers of reception operations are selected on the basis of competitive tenders. The Finnish Immigration Service has put its reception operation services out to tender from 2022 onwards. Before that, decisions to set up reception centres were made by direct procurement.

In 2015–2016, the costs of reception centres invoiced for by the districts of the Finnish Red Cross to the state amounted to approximately 343 million euros in total. The sum included the services provided by the Red Cross (personnel and real estate costs, materials and equipment) as well as the external costs (health care and reception allowances of the asylum seekers) and the compensation for administrative costs. In total, districts invoiced costs to the sum of approximately 58 million euros in 2019. Between 2022 and 2024, the Red Cross districts' contracts with the state were worth around €423 million.

The Red Cross has not maintained reception centres in the Helsinki Metropolitan Area or in Uusimaa since spring 2019. The Finnish Immigration Service decided to close the reception centre in Hanko in late 2020. The authorities’ criteria have included placing asylum seekers in different parts of the country and dividing the responsibilities between several municipalities. Having expertise available all over Finland is also sensible from the point of view of preparedness.

Preparedness for large-scale migration

The number of reception centres run by the Red Cross districts has decreased. However, we will continue to develop our capacity to help with immigration. 
In the event of large-scale migration, the Red Cross is prepared to provide humanitarian aid, both to support the authorities and independently, depending on what is needed. This preparedness is based on the planning and competence that the Red Cross maintains around Finland.

Preparedness is an essential part of the Red Cross’s operations. It is maintained by training volunteers for various crisis situations, among other means.