Finland expels Gypsy refugees

Eighty-eight Rumanian Gyp-sies returned to Rumania Aug. 10 on a charter flight after European Union member Finland refused to grant them political asylum and expelled the group, police said.

The Gypsies had sought to enter Finland as tourists and asked for asylum after destroying their passports to conceal their origin and avoid being sent back to their home country immediately.

Rumanian police were investigating whether any wanted delinquents were among the group.

Repatriated would-be emigrants can have their passports confiscated for three years, depriving them of travel rights.

Finland has rejected all 525 asylum requests filed by Rumanian Gypsies since the start of the year and nearly 300 were repatriated before the expulsion of the most recent group.

Rumania, an EU candidate, turned back 13 Gypsies Aug. 9 who were seeking to travel to Western Europe after one of them was found to be wanted for human trafficking.

Bucharest has pledged to tighten border controls in view of its membership, possibly in 2007.

EU member states are growing increasingly worried about mass immigration from poorer candidate countries, while candidates themselves are worried about opening their own borders to refugees from further east once they join the union.