The Finnish Immigration Service (Migri) plans to close 18 asylum seeker reception centres in the country this year, the agency announced on Thursday.
The facilities are being shut down because of a sharp decrease in the number of asylum seekers arriving in Finland, according to the agency.
"We will terminate contracts with 18 reception centers in total as of 1 April and 1 July, which will save approximately 21 million euros in costs this year," said Elina Nurmi, Migri's reception services unit chief.
The agency also plans to shut eight more reception centres in February of next year. Last summer, Migri announced plans to shut down a number of reception centres, at the time there were 76 such facilities around the country.
"These contract terminations are necessary to achieve savings, but they have been timed with regard to, for example, the best interest of children and young people. The first closures will not take place before the end of June, which means that children and young people are not required to move to a municipality or to another reception center before the school term has ended," Nurmi said in a press release.
According to the agency, more than 2,200 reception centre clients would be eligible to apply for a municipality of residence. It said nearly half of the clients living in the closing centres would be able to move to a municipality if they wished.
"Clients who do not, or cannot, apply for a municipality of residence will be offered accommodation in another reception centre. These relocations of clients will be planned in cooperation with the reception centres. Clients can also move to private accommodation if they so wish. Reception centre staff will examine the individual situations of clients and discuss the changes with them," Nurmi said.
The agency listed the reception centres that are set to close down in a press release issued in English.