Month: July 2016

When will the Finnish police service stop denying that ethnic profiling isn’t an issue?

Posted on by Migrant Tales

The Finnish police service acts as if it has never heard of ethnic profiling. Even if ethnic profiling cases by the police are rarely brought to the attention of the media, there was one case made public Friday by singer Musta Barbaari, whose mother and sister were – according to a Facebook posting – treated in “a rude manner” and were “humiliated publicly” by the police. 

Musta Barbaari writes on his Facebook wall that after spending the night in Helsinki’s city center, his mother and sister were stopped by two plainclothes police officers who asked them for their passport. Even if the posting and the

Even if the posting and the Helsingin Sanomat story doesn’t mention that the conversation with the police took place in the Finnish language, the singer’s sister refused to show her passport and asked the police why they were being arbitrarily stopped and questioned.

Musta Barbaari writes: “The plainclothes police didn’t answer [my sister’s question] but proceeded to handcuff both of them rudely and forced my mother to lie on the ground. My sister asked once again why they were being treated in such a way and what they had done but didn’t get an answer from police. My mother feared for her life and thought she was going to be beaten since the behavior of the police was very rude!”

Na?ytto?kuva 2016-7-11 kello 4.21.05

Read full statement here.

The singer has brought criminal charges against the police.

Continue reading “When will the Finnish police service stop denying that ethnic profiling isn’t an issue?”

How “safe” is Iraq? Who is safe in Iraq?

Posted on by Migrant Tales

An Isis suicide attack ripped Baghdad Sunday causing the death toll to rise today to 217 dead., according to Al Iraqya TV. 

It wasn’t a long time ago when the Finnish Immigration Service (FIS) with the ok of the government, which comprises of the anti-immigration Perussuomalaiset (PS),* Center Party and National Coalition Party, stated that Iraq, Afghanistan, and Somalia are safe countries to return asylum seekers.

These are apparently “safe” countries to return asylum seekers. The foreign ministry advises Finns not to visit these three countries.

So while members of the PS, government, and public officials enjoy their peaceful holidays by a quiet lake, there is a slaughter house not too far away where you can feel the chilling breath of death.

Viewer discretion is advised. The content of the pictures below may be disturbing.

Continue reading “How “safe” is Iraq? Who is safe in Iraq?”

Migrants’ Rights Network: Brexit and potential human rights implications

Posted on by Migrant Tales

Alan Anstead 

Alan_Anstead_re-sized

 

 

 

 

 

A small majority of UK voters said that the UK should leave the EU in the referendum on 23 June. UK Race and Europe Network’s Alan Anstead looks at some of the main human rights implications of the UK government invoking article 50 of the Lisbon Treaty and starting the countdown to leaving the EU.

Charter of Fundamental Rights

The EU Charter of Fundamental Rights covers political, social and economic rights: dignity, freedoms, equality, solidarity, citizens’ rights and justice. Although the Charter is consistent with the European Convention on Human Rights, many see it as a more modern codification because includes such rights as data protection, which was not an issue when the European Convention on Human Rights was passed in 1950. On leaving the EU, this would no longer apply to the UK.

European Convention on Human Rights

But we would still have the European Convention on Human Rights you might argue. True, but for how long and in what form? It has been a Conservative Party manifesto promise for many years to replace the Human Rights Act, which makes the European Convention accessible as a UK law, with a British Bill of Rights. A leading contender for the Conservative Party leadership, Theresa May, said in the EU referendum debates that the UK should leave the European Convention. Although very recently she has changed her mind, I’m sure that I am not alone in not trusting what politicians say. So a new PM may well repeal the Human Rights Act and bring in a new Bill of Rights, which may or may not be compatible with the UK’s obligations under the European Convention. One to watch carefully.

Continue reading “Migrants’ Rights Network: Brexit and potential human rights implications”

Post-Brexit Europe: There is a connection between scapegoating and hate crime

Posted on by Migrant Tales

Is there a connection between scapegoating migrants, minorities as well as Others and hate crime? If you look at what has happened after the Brexit vote in the United Kingdom it’s clear that there is a connection.

Victimizing and promoting suspicion of migrant and minority groups is one matter but the most worrisome issue that should concern us is indifference.

How low can you stoop? Too many politicians and the media blame migrants, minorities and the EU for the problems they have caused and inflicted.

The late Elie Wiesel, a Holocaust survivor and 1986 Nobel Peace Prize winner who passed away Saturday, pinpoints the problem in the quote: below:

“Action is the only remedy to indifference: the most insidious danger of all.”

Just like with the alarming rise of xenophobia in the United Kingdom after the Brexit vote, the same is happening in other European countries like Finland that have anti-immigration parties that provoke open conflict with migrants and minorities.

Right after the 2011 parliamentary elections, some Finns saw the victory of the Perussuomalaiset (PS)* party as a green light to attack migrants,  minorities, and our ever-growing culturally diverse society. Membres of the Somali community, one of the favorite scapegoats of the PS, were targetted.

Below is a comment Migrant Tales got from a visitor who believed that we’d be out of business because we would stop getting funding [1] from Kepa, an organisation that represents Finnish civil society organisations (CSOs) that work in development cooperation.

Na?ytto?kuva 2016-6-28 kello 7.41.29

Migrant Tales has received its fair share of attacks by people who want to keep Finland white.

Continue reading “Post-Brexit Europe: There is a connection between scapegoating and hate crime”

Finland’s ever-growing culturally diverse community must rise up and challenge hostile parties like the Perussuomalaiset

Posted on by Migrant Tales

Some ask me where do I get the energy and strength to write. My answer is simple: When I read and hear comments by politicians and people who hate and want to socially exclude me my blood begins to boil. The only remedy that calms me is writing and organizing my thoughts.

But we must do much more. It’s wishful thinking to believe that parties like the Perussuomalaiset (PS)*, with the near-silent approval of most other parties, have declared war on us and our ever-growing culturally diverse community.

Read and listen carefully what parties like the PS have in store for us: They aim to relegate us to second- and third-class citizens, separate our families and continue to whitewash our history and our right to live in Finland.

We have a lot of support from white Finns but the spark that will challenge this threat to us and Finland is in our hands. We must rise up and challenge this cancer spreading throughout Finland and Europe.

I’m confident that we can send back this ogre to where it came from.

* The Finnish name for the Finns Party is the Perussuomalaiset (PS). The English names of the party adopted by the PS, like True Finns or Finns Party, promote in our opinion nativist nationalism and xenophobia. We, therefore, prefer to use the Finnish name of the party on our postings. The direct translation of “Perussuomalaiset” is “basic” or “fundamental Finn.” 

Anti-immigration populist foreign ministers like Timo Soini are constantly trying to score brownie points with the voters

Posted on by Migrant Tales

Populists like Finland’s Foreign Minister Timo Soini of the Perussuomalaiset (PS)* party are constantly campaigning. As we’ve seen in the disaster that Brexit inflicted on the United Kingdom, Soini too like Boris Johnson makes it up. 

Like Johnson, Soini has got hit hard in the polls because he made campaign promises that he could never keep.

In his usual style, the PS leader exaggerates to a reporter and viewers who are little informed about Finland.

“The discussion is now open and loud as well,” he told the Sky News reporter.

“Loud?” Oh, yes, because PS’ Sebastian Tynkkynen and Sampo Terho raised the possibility of a referendum in Finland.

Even if Soini acknowledges that there are no plans for the present government to hold a referendum on EU membership, he leaves the door ajar for such a possibility after the 2019 general elections.

“…each party is going to publish its program for the elections [concerning EU membership],” he continued. “It’s up to our people and our members to decide what kind of an approach we’ll have.”

Na?ytto?kuva 2016-7-1 kello 10.38.33Listen to interview here.

Taking into account the popularity of the PS in the polls, which has plummeted, not too many will care what it does if it becomes a taxi party like in 2007, when it had 5 MPs.

A taxi party is a term used in Bolivia to describe parties that are so small that all of their members can fit inside a taxi.

* The Finnish name for the Finns Party is the Perussuomalaiset (PS). The English names of the party adopted by the PS, like True Finns or Finns Party, promote in our opinion nativist nationalism and xenophobia. We, therefore, prefer to use the Finnish name of the party on our postings. The direct translation of “Perussuomalaiset” is “basic” or “fundamental Finn.”