Bustransportation to the Fact-Finding Tours is arranged leaving from the seminar venue Sokos Hotel Presidentti.

1) The Operational Command Centre

The Operational Command Centre functions as the operative command and communications centre for the police department, supporting police operations, and serving both the public and the media in matters related to police operations. The operational command centre unit is responsible for maintaining awareness of the national situation and ensuring that the government officials and top police executives receive rapid and reliable information on events and phenomena that may endanger internal security.

Other national tasks include, for instance, acting as the general command centre in circumstances specified by the Supreme Police Command, supplying executive assistance, receiving emergency messages from vessels at sea and the required operations, acting as the Finnish Police's operative emergency and contact point with the European Union and Russia, and maintaining the authorities' network.

2) Helsinki Maritime Control Centre

The main duties of the Coast Guard of the Gulf of Finland involve the control of sea rescue operations in their own district as well as the co-ordination of the maritime operations of their own units. Maintaining the sea rescue preparedness include listening to the international emergency frequencies and channels in the district and Lake Saimaa, uninterrupted stand-by telephone service, giving alarms to the rescue units and controlling the operations.

Additionally, the control centre of the Coast Guard serves as the communication centre of the Border Guard outside office hours and as the alarm receiving station of oil combating and the protection of maritime environment in the Gulf of Finland area. In every shift, there is always an operator and a control centre officer simultaneously on duty.

3 )Metsälä Asylum Centre

The Asylum Centre organises the transit reception, accommodation, income support and necessary health care services to asylum seekers during the asylum seeking process. The premises also house a Custody Unit, a part of whose clients are recent arrivals whose identity and itinerary are unclear. Another group consists of aliens who have been denied entry or who are to be deported, waiting for the implementation of the relevant decisions. The fact-finding visit also includes discussions about asylum seeking of EU citizens.


4) Drug Addiction Clinic

The joint project of the Helsinki Deaconess Institute and the Cityof Helsinki will be launched at the beginning of 2009. The Clinic provides comprehensive under-one-roof services for drug addicts combining social work, health services, day centre services and accommodation. The Unit encompasses a drug addiction clinic, a rehabilitation ward, a detoxication clinic and a service centre for HIV positive drug addicts.