After being detained by the police on October 23 in Mikkeli, the twenty-one-year-old Iraqi asylum seeker in detention cell 406 was released from detention in Joutseno* this afternoon at 4:40 pm. All in all, his detention in Mikkeli was from October 23-27 and from October 27-November 23, or a total of 32 days.
“I don’t know what to say because I’m so happy because I’m happy to be free again,” he said. “I don’t have any words to describe what I’m feeling. It’s a bit confusing.”
Before and after. Photo of mourning dove by Nicole Beaulac.
The asylum seeker said that Thursday a policewoman and man broke the news to him.
“I felt nervous, and I asked if it’s good or bad news,” he continued. “One of the police smiled and told me to wait for the interpreter, who told me that I would be released.”
The asylum seeker still doesn’t know what his fate is in Finland.
“I applied for a new asylum case and got a swift rejection from Migri,” he concluded. “I don’t know what is going to happen to me.”
* The asylum seeker who was locked up in this cell thought he was in Lappeenranta but in fact he was at the Joutseno immigration removal center located 20km away.