The ministry of interior published on Thursday its recommendations on what to do with some 3,000 undocumented migrants who came to Finland in 2015-2016. Of this group, about 300 are children living in legal limbo thanks to a 2016 law that abolished granting residence permits on humanitarian grounds.
The number of undocumented migrants rose from a few hundred to a few thousand thanks to the 2016 law.
Before the passing of the law during Prime Minister Juho Sipilä’s government, asylum seekers who could not be sent to their country because of human rights violations were given temporary residence permits.
Some MPs who voted in favor of the law, which has created so much suffering for undocumented migrants, were Nasima Razmyar, the deputy mayor of Helsinki. Apart from the Center Party, National Coalition Party (Kokoomus), and Perussuomalaiset (PS)*, opposition parties like the Christian Democrats and most of the Social Democrats voted in favor of the bill.
One of the Social Democrat MPs who voted for the bill was Nasima Razmyar, a former Afghan asylum seeker.
Certainly, we’ll hear a lot of whining from the PS and Kokoomus MPs like Wille Rydman demanding that Finland should just give these vulnerable migrants, who are potential victims of exploitation and human trafficking, a kick in the behind back to their respective countries.
Sending people back to Afghanistan under Taliban rule isn’t a good option, and Iraq has said it will not accept asylum seekers unless they are convicted of a crime.
In an editorial Saturday, Helsingin Sanomat asked an important question: “Those who state that the [ministry of interior’s] recommendations [to grant residence permits] aren’t valid should now present their solutions.”
So what are the options Riikka Purra, Sari Essayah, Rydman, and Petteri Orpo, who was interior minister in 2016?
They have none because the only answer they can come up with is silent loathing.
Let’s get real and stop being such hypocrites and grant alas temporary residence permits to Finland’s undocumented migrants.
See also
- Amir’s tragic life as an asylum seeker in Finland (9.10.2021)
- Some asylum seekers in Finland live in crowded rooms and in dreadful conditions (5.10.2018)
- Undocumented pensioner and migrant grandmother: “I’m being deported” (10.8.2018)
- Adam, the undocumented migrant in Finland from Ingushetia, Russia (8.4.2018)
- Little to no trust in the Finnish police profits those who exploit needy migrants (17.3.2018)
- Migrant Tales’ response to the Helsinki police service’s actions at the Puhos shopping center (5.2.2018)
- Finland’s interpretation of human rights is to turn you into an “undocumented migrant” and kick you out of the country – HELP! (4.3.2017)
- w2eu.info: How to stop a deportation (24.2.2017)
- Undocumented migrants and the absurd scapegoat excuses by the Finnish government (15.1.2017)
- Undocumented migrants in Finland: Päivi Nerg lives in denial, politicians live in denial as do the media and most of the country, too (6.1.2017)
- Former undocumented immigrant Edgar Ortega: A true survivor (18.2.2013)