One refugee at the Villa Meri asylum reception center in the western city of Rauma is on hunger strike denouncing the poor treatment by the staff. Hoivapalvelu Metsätähti, a subsidiary owned by Helsinki-based Mehiläinen, a private health care company, operates the reception center
Luona, another private company that runs eight reception centers in Helsinki, Espoo, Vantaa, and Hyvinkää, has been under media scrutiny for the poor treatment of its occupants. The case has raised questions about the role of such companies in the asylum reception “business.”
The Villa Meri asylum reception center is located in Rauma, located 94km north of Turku. Source: Google.
“They don’t treat us well,” an asylum seeker at the Villa Meri reception center told Migrant Tales by phone. “The manager threatened to deport us back to Iraq if we complained to the police.”
The asylum seeker acknowledged that the poor treatment they received at the center that houses about 75 asylum seekers was “racist” and “humiliating.”
Migrant Tales will publish more about the protest at Villa Meri.