Finnish PM Juha Sipila offers his spare home to relieve distressed refugees

A view of Prime Minister of Finland Juha Sipila’s house in Kempele, Finland. Sipila said that after some discussions and consultation with local authorities, he and his wife decided to make their house in Kempele can be available as of Jan. 1. (Source: Timo Heikkala/Lehtikuva via AP) 

Sipila told Finnish broadcaster YLE Saturday morning that his family has a house in Kempele that they no longer use since moving to Helsinki. “We should all take a look in the mirror and ask how we can help,” Sipila told national broadcaster YLE.

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He said an EU plan to distribute 120,000 refugees arriving in Greece, Italy and Hungary to countries around the European Union should be voluntary and hoped Finland could show an example.

Details of how to apply and how many people the house could accommodate weren’t immediately available.

Last month, Finland’s interior ministry said it expects that up to 15,000 people would apply for asylum in the country10,000 higher than previous estimates.

Finland’s government on Saturday doubled its estimate for the number of asylum seekers in the country this year to up to 30,000.

[With inputs from AP]