A week after Fayaz has stopped his 10-day hunger strike by the insistence of nurse and caseworkers, he has published a video from his cell in the Metsälä reception center for migrants.
In the video (Published by Fayaz and Ahmad Hosseini a local activist) he is giving an update about his situation, his case, the unbelievable stress, uncertainty about his life and his future. He mentioned that he has even prepared himself to die!
Simply for being a refugee, and someone who has fled a dangerous situation, he is treated as a criminal by the law enforcement and Helsinki Police. The reason that given to him for his detention in Metsälä Reception Center is that he has left Finland to another country! In this video, he makes clear that the reason why he fled to Luxembourg from Finland was due to the fear of deportation.
After a conversation with him last week, he mentioned that his friend who fled to Luxembourg with him is now accepted as an asylum seeker in Luxemburg. Fayaz is afraid of Taliban for hostility towards him and his family. In 2013, his father went missing in Ghazni, and he fled Afghanistan in 2015.
Here is the note I published on Facebook after the meeting with Fayaz:
“This morning, I had the privilege of meeting Fayaz at Metsälä Migrant Removal Center, which was basically a low-level security prison. Some spaces in this world cannot be described by words so I don’t even try. He was on the 9th day of hunger strike and very weak but had such a warm presence that I will probably never forget in my life. I wish that we can at least get him out of there. Everyone should know that “Refugees are not criminals and they are welcome here” and human life has to be preserved.
Just this week there was a new wave of attacks around Afghanistan in Ghazni and Kabul where NewYork Times called it: “Dream of a Better Life in Afghanistan Ends in a Hilltop Grave for Students” and Amnesty identified the attacks as “War Crime”. Simultaneously, Mohammad Javid a local activist has published a tweet about the recent deportation to Afghanistan carried by Suomen Poliisi
Migrant Tales in a recent post has compared Finnish Migration policies to Trump’s USA and it’s zero tolerance migration policies. And Helsinki’s Stop Deportations group has published an interview with Finnish ambassador in Afghanistan during the “Afghan women Film festival” in Espoo, talking about the current unsafe situation of Afghanistan.