Author: Migrant Tales

The Finnish Red Cross must take action to correct the alleged abuses at the Laajakoski asylum reception center near Kotka

Posted on by Migrant Tales

Migrant Tales and Kymen Sanomat published on Saturday and Sunday stories about the problems and abuses that asylum seekers face at the Red Cross-run Laajakoski reception center. The fact that incompetence, poor management, and abuses of asylum seekers take place at the reception center near Kotka is unacceptable. 

What is even more incredible is the Laajakoski reception center’s manager, Saija Makkonen, who won’t comment about the serious allegations.

We wonder if the abuse and mistreatment of asylum seekers at Laajakoski are “individual cases” or a worrying trend.

Are Deputy Manager Tiina Meisola telling asylum seekers to go back to where they came from and mocking a suicide attempt “individual cases?”  What about a nurse, who allegedly told an asylum seeker that she didn’t care if she died in Finland or Iraq?

The long list of complaints by the asylum seekers reveals that the management has lost control of the situation and apparently wants to brush the serious problems of the reception center under the carpet.

Migrant Tales and Kymen Sanomat revealed the problems that asylum seekers face at the Laajakoski reception center.

Considering that we’ve written a lot of stories about the problems of only three asylum reception centers managed by the Red Cross and other ones run by private companies begs a question: Are these cases exceptions or a worrying trend?

Continue reading “The Finnish Red Cross must take action to correct the alleged abuses at the Laajakoski asylum reception center near Kotka”

Asylum seekers: The situation at the Laajakoski reception center is “absolutely catastrophic”

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We’ve been getting some distressing reports from the Laajakoski asylum reception center near the southeastern city of Kotka, where there appears to be a serious breakdown of trust between the management/staff and a number of asylum seekers. 

In November, a petition was signed by most of the 250-odd asylum seekers at the reception center. They pointed out some of the issues (see below) but their overriding demand was that the management and staff should be changed.

Even if running an asylum reception center isn’t easy, one would expect high standards from a humanitarian association like the Red Cross. Even if organizations can make mistakes when hiring staff, what is unpardonable is if that they do little to nothing to correct the problems at the reception center.

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Source: Mikko T. Helminen and Wael Cheblak.

We have written a lot about reception centers in Finland this year. One of these was in May when we wrote about Kolari asylum reception center deputy manager, Jari Sillantie, who was sacked for being unfit for the job. If Sillantie’s Facebook is a reflection of his view of migrants and asylum seekers, he “likes” Islamophobic politicians like Perussuomalaiset* (PS) MP Laura Huhtasaari and “likes” causes such as Suomi Ensin, a far-right group.

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Ethnic profiling in the EU is illegal and discriminatory

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Please share: 

#EthnicProfiling is unfair & discriminatory. @EU_Justice we need EU standards on #FairPolicing #SingledOut 

When police use ethnicity as a basis for a stop & search it is #discrimination. EU member states must stop #EthnicProfiling #SingledOut 

#EthnicProfiling can damage trust & alienate local communities. EU must develop standards on #FairPolicing @EU_Justice #SingledOut 

39% of Roma surveyed in Greece said they felt that they were stopped by police because of their ethnicity #EthnicProfiling #SingledOut 

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Why migrants and minorities in Finland continue to suffer from discrimination and social inequality

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Entitlement and denial are some of the reasons why respect for cultural diversity and treating Others in Finnish society as equals faulters. There is too much lip service like “we’re against racism” but few deeds to give such a powerful statement life and meaning. 

Entitlement reinforces denial. It permits the majority to have its racist cake and eat it.

There’s no way that we’ll have too many listeners to our anti-racism cause as long as entitlement and denial play a central role in how the majority views and treats minorities.

It’s pretty simple: How can I, a member of the minority, tell the majority, which has entitlement and power, that it should give up its privileges so I could be treated and compete on the same level as he or she? How can I convince public officials and politicians to put into action those “we’re against racism” catchphrases?

Worse yet is that we have members of our culturally diverse community that are mouthpieces of the majority or mamu-setäs (Finnish Uncle Toms).

If we look at countries like the United States, the Civil Rights Movement (1955-68) and its most illustrious leaders like Malcolm X and Martin Luther King Jr. show us that the only way you are going to change things is through a social movement.

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Perussuomalaiset speaker of parliament Maria Lohela is a disingenuous Islamophobe

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I couldn’t believe what Perussuomalaiset (PS)* speaker of parliament, Maria Lohela, said in a speech today at a flag-raising ceremony in Helsinki commemorating independence day. Apart from being an MP, Lohela is an Islamophobe with a proven track record against gay and migrant rights.

She is one of the thirteen persons that signed the Nuiva manifesto in 2010. Some of the signatories of the manifesto include three PS politicians (MEP Jussi Halla-aho, former MP James Hirvisaari and Kotka city councilman Freddy van Wonterghem) who were sentenced for ethnic agitation as well as others who have made their political careers by attacking migrants. Some of these are MP Juho Eerola, MP Olli Immonen, Riikka Slunga-Poutsalo, PS party secretary, and seven others.

Finland suffers from amnesia, especially the Finnish Broadcast Company (YLE),  and Lohela of two-faced dishonesty.

 

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Maria Lohela is not my speaker of parliament.

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Police superintendent of Finland: No need for repatriation agreement with Iraq, we can deport asylum seekers if we wish

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“We have always returned people there, and we seek to continue to do so. There is a false notion, if you could call it that, that a repatriation agreement must be signed before the police can carry out a forced return, but it is not true,” National Police Board Chief Superintendent Mia Poutanen, is quoted as saying in YLE News.

This statement by Chief Superintendent Poutanen has a lot of Iraqi asylum seekers worried. It is then possible to force Iraqi asylum seekers who got a negative decision from the Finnish Immigration Service (Migri) to go back to their country? 

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Read the full story here.

One asylum seeker that Migrant Tales contacted expressed shock but knew that Iraqi asylum seekers are deported back to Iraq against their will.

The whole process, which appears to be full of legal contradictions and question marks, is the result of a law that did away with residence permits on humanitarian grounds.

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UPDATE: Minor asylum seeker at the Villa Meri reception center sent to hospital after getting pepper-sprayed by security guard

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UPDATE (3:52pm): According to one security guard contacted by Migrant Tales, pepper spray can only be used on a person if the security guard is assaulted physically. Pepper spray is used only for defensive purposes. 

The source at Villa Meri claims that the minor who was pepper-sprayed did not attack the security guard physically. “He didn’t put a hand on him,” said the source. 

If pepper spray is used, the security guard must inform the police and remain next to the victim if he or she needs help. A report is written with one going to the police, the security company, and to the client, which would be in this case Hoitopalvelu Metsätähti. 

It’ll be interesting to see what happens in this case and if the asylum seeker didn’t attack the security guard. 

__________________

We continue to get worrisome news from the Villa Meri asylum reception center of Rauma. An asylum seeker at the center, who is a minor, was peppered sprayed on Friday and taken to the hospital. Why? Because he protested that his sister, who came from Helsinki to visit him, had to leave the center.

The Villa Meri reception center, which is located 91km north of Turku, is managed by a private company called Hoitopalvelu Metsätähti, which is a subsidiary of Helsinki-based health care and social services company Mehiläinen.

“The problem was that the [young] asylum seeker didn’t want his sister to be kicked out of the camp since there were no buses to Helsinki and because she had no place to stay,” an asylum seeker at Villa Meri told Migrant Tales by phone. “After the security guard sprayed him with pepper spray, the police came and he was taken to the hospital. He came back to Villa Meri the next day.”

The minor’s sister is believed to have slept at the bus station since she had too little money to go to a hotel.

The minor had tried to speak with the manager of the camp, Päivi Nikkola, for quite a while, according to the asylum seeker.

“She always tells him that she doesn’t have any time to talk to him,” the person said.

Are the stricter rules at Villa Meri due to the suspected rape case of an adolescent that took place in October or just arbitrary bullying by the staff?

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The minor who was pepper-sprayed was taken to the hospital for treatment. He returned to the camp the following day.

Continue reading “UPDATE: Minor asylum seeker at the Villa Meri reception center sent to hospital after getting pepper-sprayed by security guard”

Asylum Corner: Mental health support to asylum seekers: what kind of support is most needed?

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Imagine the (now nearly emptied) Calais “jungle” and mental healthcare services in one single sentence: your reaction would probably sound like “you wouldn’t know where to start”, for you are just a single person and Sisyphus was never your favourite character in epic poetry. But someone might decide to try, in spite of the hopelessness of the situation, and create a group who could at least provide some mental healthcare assistance to those who most need it. The Refugee Resilience Collective (RRC) was born on these assumptions.

na%cc%88ytto%cc%88kuva-2016-12-3-kello-8-12-26Read the full story here.

The reality is, the RRC is just one of the countless volunteer groups and organizations that felt the urge to make the Calais “jungle” a little less of an inhumane place. Leaning on the makeshift medical system created by Médecins sans Fontières and Médecins du Monde at the Calais camp, the London-based collective (composed of 9 clinical psychologists and systemic psychotherapists) has been commuting from the British capital every Friday since last April to conduct group therapy with young asylum seekers, women and volunteers working at the Calais camp.

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Migrant Tales begins cooperation with Asylum Corner

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Migrant Tales will begin cooperation by beginning to publish stories by Asylum Corner,  the newsletter of Lai-Momo, an Italian cooperative society based in Bologna, Italy, and Brussels. Like Migrant Tales, Asylum Corner writes about topics like migrants’ integration, asylum seekers assistance, intercultural and anti-discrimination education.

Lai-Momo information and communication officer Claudia Mará took a moment to explain what kind of work Lai-Momo does.

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Visit Asylum Corner here.

“Asylum Corner  is a project that I started with some other colleagues in Africa e Mediterraneo/Lai-momo  because we thought we could leverage the double expertise of our organizations in social communication and social work with refugees,” she said. “It’s not that common to find associations in the social sector that can work with both.”

Marà said that Asylum Corner was not only started to help refugees directly but those social workers working with them. She said that another aim of the publication is to cover a topic like refugees more fairly and comprehensively than the European media.

“If only citizens in every EU member state could get a first-hand experience of what it means to work with asylum seekers, or at least as we try to do with AC,” she said, “read about positive practices in the reception of asylum seekers and migrants, EU public opinion would probably be a bit softer on the migration issue.”

 

In choosing a Finnish political party to vote for, you must ask which is the least racist

Posted on by Migrant Tales

Finland is gearing up for municipal elections on April 9, 2017.

If you are a non-white Finn and a minority, finding that right party and political fit can be quite a difficult task. Parties like the Left Alliance, Greens and Swedish People’s Party are pretty favorable to cultural diversity while others like the Perussuomalaiset (PS)* are the most hostile to it.

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Even if migrants can vote in municipal elections, well under 20% do so. Source: Helsingin Sanomat.

All the rest, like the Social Democrats, Center Party, National Coalition Party and the Christian Democrats, are a big question mark. Their track record on challenging discrimination, bigotry, institutional racism and promoting cultural diversity isn’t convincing at all.

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