Tässä on Jere Liikasen (ps) kirjoitus Länsi-Savossa (17.8.)
Facebook Kansainvälinen Mikkeli: Vastinne Jere Liikaselle (ps)
Fayaz’s statements from his cell in Metsälä Reception Center for migrants
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.
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See: Two Iraqi asylum seekers who returned to “safe” Iraq and were killed.
Harith Mana’thar Badr Alsilmawi: Asylum seeker sent from Finland killed in “safe” Iraq
For how long will the Finnish Immigration Service (Migri) with the backing of Prime Minister Juha Sipilä’s government continue to maintain that Iraq is a “safe” country to deport asylum seekers? The latest victim of this flawed policy is 33-year-old Harith Mana’thar Badr Alsilmawi, who sought asylum in 2015 and died on Wednesday in Basra.
Migrant Tales reported in October 2016 of two Iraqi asylum seekers who returned to their home country and were killed.
According to a source who has been in touch with Harith Mana’thar Badr Alsilmawi’s relatives in Iraq, the young asylum seeker was apprehended by the police, tortured and then killed.
“There are conflicting stories about Alsilmawi’s deportation to Iraq from Finland,” said the source. “The family in Iraq said that he returned voluntarily while other sources at the Jämsä asylum reception center state that he was detained by the police and forcibly deported.”
Harith Mana’thar Badr Alsilmawi’s death certificate. Source: Facebook.
This story will be updated.
Brexit-inflicted UK is so racist that even white Europeans are targets of racism and rage
It would be wrong to conclude that Brexit is the cause of the racism we are witnessing today in the United Kingdom. Surprised? Not really. What would you expect from a country that has a dark history in global domination, exploitation, and genocide?
The common thinking of some people about the United Kingdom is that it was its divine right to colonize, enslave, exploit, pillage and commit genocide on a mass global scale. Britain is as much out of touch with its racism and bigotry as it is in acknowledging, apologizing and compensating its victims.
The racism we are seeing today in the United Kingdom, Europe, the United States, Australia and elsewhere is the same ogre that conquered and pillaged the world through the greed of colonization and slavery.
Below is a story in metro.co.uk that highlights the illness facing
Read the full story here.
Thank you Patrick Yu for the heads-up.
Undocumented pensioner and migrant grandmother: “I’m being deported”
In March, we wrote about the case of an over sixty-year-old disabled white undocumented migrant whose residence permit had been rejected by the Finnish Immigration Service (Migri) because she wanted to live with her daughter and grandchildren.
Finland’s strict immigration policy is that it doesn’t recognize grandparents as part of the nuclear family.
A few years ago, there were two high-profile cases in the Finnish media involving grandmothers. Migri had tried to deport unsuccessfully three times a Russian citizen, Irina Antonova, who had suffered a stroke in Finland while visiting her daughter. Egyptian grandmother Eveline Fadayel was granted a residence permit after a lengthy battle with Migri officials.
In spring, when I spoke to Sheryl* the first time, she had overstayed her visit to Finland and had become an undocumented migrant. Her future in Finland was left to chance until two policemen “barged” in her home this month.
She then messaged me.
After the police visited her home, Migri gave Sheryl a month to leave the country. Her passport was confiscated and Migri will only return it after she has purchased a plane ticket. She said that she has no will to leave her daughter and family behind or the money yet to buy the plane ticket.
Sheryl said that in North America she has no home and will t
“We are all very upset by what happened,” she said. “I haven’t broken the news to my three grandchildren, who are 3, 5, and 6 years old. I know the news will make them cry.”
Sheryl blames Finland’s “inhumane” immigration policy for separating families.
“My daughter and her children are the only family I have,” she said. “Why can’t I stay if I’m not a drain on the system?”
*The real name of the person was changed and she spoke on condition of anonymity.
Soldiers of Odin expand to Finland’s Åland Islands
I ran across a story in Seura about the far-right vigilante group, Soldiers of Odin, starting a chapter in Finland’s Åland Islands. Migrant Tales has wondered in a number of stories the Finnish media’s fascination with far-right and racist groups like the
But it’s not only the media that gives space and exposure to such Nazi- sympathizing groups, some police representatives don’t see any problems with them either.
“In my opinion, it’s positive that we have more ears and eyes in [Åland] society, which inform the police,” Maria Hoikkala, Åland chief of police, was quoted as saying in Ålandstidningenille.
Read the full story (in Swedish) here.
In light of the police’s continued mixed response to far-right vigilante groups and the media’s apparent fascination with them, one may correctly ask why was the story about this group published in a Åland newspaper? The story doesn’t tell us, but we may be talking about a “taxi organization,” or that all of its members can fit in the
Why is this a story in the first place and why does the chief of police not have any issues with this far-right group that marches and has
Is it because they are white?
The fact that a group identifies with neo-Nazis raises a lot of questions about Hoikkala’s knowledge about the horrors of World War 2.
QUOTE OF THE DAY: What similarities are there between Finnish immigration policy and the US administration’s zero- tolerance policy?
“In order to deter and discourage migrants and asylum seekers from coming to the country, the Trump administration implemented the controversial
While different in some respects, US zero tolerance and Finland’s immigration policy are fuelled by the same factor:
How many times have we heard different representatives of Prime Minister Juha Sipilä’s government justify the tightening of immigration policy and
This shameful policy leads us down a slippery slope where our values as a society and our institutions are undermined and suffer cracks.”
Finnish police suspected of sedating asylum seekers on deportation flights. It may break the law, according to a medical specialist.
There has been a suspicion that the police use sedatives when deporting asylum seekers on flights. According to Markku Toivonen, a medical specialist, considers the use of sedatives unethical and even illegal, according to Iltalehti.
“The point here is if medication is given against [the person’s] will or whether there is consent,” Toivonen was quoted as saying. “In any case, from a physician’s point of view, if the person is not only bound but given medication [sedatives] on an airplane [by the police] it may be a violation of the law in such deportation cases.”
Read the full story (in Finnish) here, and in English here.
Migrant Tales published in January 2017 a story about the deportation of an Iraqi at Oulu airport. As the asylum seeker spoke and recorded his deportation on social media, a substance, possibly a sedative, sprayed inside the van. “And it smells bad,” the asylum seeker said.
If such cases are true, it reveals that there is too little scrutiny of the police in deportation cases.
This must change like Finland’s inhumane immigration and asylum policy towards non-EU citizens.
QUOTE OF THE DAY: How anti-diversity and Islamophobic is Finland?
“One of the big denials that one still hears a lot in Finland is its denial of the rise of the Perussuomalaiset (PS)*, an Islamophobic party that won 39 seats in the parliamentary elections of 2011 from just 5 MPs in previously. There was an ongoing debate after 2011 within the PS on what caused its historic election victory. Then party leader Timo Soini claimed it was anti-EU sentiment while its present leader, Jussi Halla-aho, claimed it was the PS’ Islamophobic stance.
While it’s clear that the PS’ anti-Islam campaign rhetoric played a crucial role in 2011, one wonders how some 20% of the voters were receptive to Islamophobia and bigotry. The PS’ election victories in 2011 and 2015 are valid examples that Finland has serious issues with xenophobia and especially with Islamophobia. Unless we want future generations of Finns to learn how not to hate other cultures and ethnic backgrounds, we need a radically new definition of Finnish identity.
In that new definition, all religions, ethnic backgrounds, and cultures fit in that new identity.”
A study on Europe’s most racist countries commissioned by the European Commission published in Fem Positive.
* The Perussuomalaiset (PS) party imploded on June 13 into two factions, the PS and New Alternative, which is now called Blue Reform. Despite the name changes, we believe that it is the same party in different clothing. Both factions are hostile to cultural diversity. One is more open about it while the other is more diplomatic.
A direct translation of Perussuomalaiset in English would be something like “basic” or “fundamental Finn.” Official translations of the Finnish name of the party, such as Finns Party or True Finns, promote in our opinion nativist nationalism and racism. We, therefore, at Migrant Tales prefer to use in our postings the Finnish name of the party once and after that the acronym PS.