(Yle) The Foreign Ministry took the lead in planning an operation to repatriate Finnish nationals who wanted to return to Finland from the al-Hol refugee camp in Syria, according to official documents seen by Yle.
The material indicated that the draft plan was to have been executed this week and involved chartering a flight to bring Finnish citizens to the Helsinki-Vantaa airport via Erbil in Iraq.
The target schedule for the repatriation flight was week 50 of this year — this week.
Minister denies detailed preps
Foreign Minister Pekka Haavisto has been caught up in a maelstrom over allegations that he wanted to push through a plan to bring the women and children back to Finland, even going so far as to sideline a top ministry official in the process.
