When I first went to the [Evros River] border, my first priority was to uncover what was happening and not to get arrested. Philip Pollák, director of the Anachoma documentary project The 480-kilometer-long Evros River, which divides Greece and Turkey in an uneasy truce, is just one of many places where EU policy on pushbacks…
Search Results for: pushback law
The elephant in the room that shows us the way to Hungary, and wishful political thinking in Finland
How can the government be so worried about “national security” if you are ready to trash our most sacred rights like Human Rights, the Constitution, and international agreements? The Draft Act on Temporary Measures to Combat Instrumentalised Migration, or the so-called pushback law, is not only concerning how the constitutional committee can sidestep our most sacred values…
Mari Rantanen has no credibility and should resign – her racist posts reveal who she is
In the face of the far right in government, the only thing that Prime Minister Petteri Orpo can parrot is that we have a good government program. The recent MEP election revealed how little credibility Prime Minister Petteri Orpo’s government has. The Perussuomalaiset (PS)*, suffered a stinging blow. The National Coalition Party (NCP) was spared…
Will refugees at the Finnish-Russian border suffer the same fate as those on Greece’s Evros River and other EU borders?
“…the job of the politician is to guarantee the safety of its own citizens and to guard its borders, and that’s what Finns expect.” Perussuomalaiset (PS)* MP Laura Huhtasaari, A-studio (3.6.2024) The answer given by PS MP Huhtasaari to justify pushbacks and deaths is a raw example of the inhumanity used during Nazi Germany to…
The Finnish government’s vile 11 months in power
“When a clown moves into a palace he doesn’t become a king, the place becomes a circus.” A Turkish proverb Finland has turned into a show of lying politicians who no longer rely on facts but on prejudice and bigotry. Even if we mention the Perussuomalaiset (PS)* party, National Coalition Party’s (NCP) Prime Minister Petteri…
Being a Russian minority in an ever-hostile Finland
The Eastern Finnish cities of Joensuu, Imatra and Lappeenranta are aiming to shut down Russian-language schools which has led to an intense debate about the future of such institutions. While some argue about economic factors and lack of demand for the closure of such schools, others point the finger at anti-Russian and anti-foreign sentiment. Katja…
Finland’s spectacular fall from grace
In 2011, when the Islamophobic and anti-EU Perussuomalaiset (PS)* party won 39 seats versus 5 in the previous election, did anyone foresee that we’d end up here? Wreaking havoc are Prme Minister Petteri Orpo’s National Coalition Party (NCP) and the PS with their two government coalition partners, the Swedish People’s Party and the Christian Democrats….
Finland sleepwalking into fascism
The new “pushback” law made public on Friday by the government shows the perilous human rights path of Finland. While the new law may pass in parliament, the question is what will the government do next to undermine Finland’s commitment to human rights. If the law is passed by a two-thirds majority, it is the…
Let the asylum seekers in and help us solve our demographic woes
THE STORY WAS UPDATED There is a strange logic that is counterproductive, like shooting oneself in the leg. Finland has a labor shortage that is going to get worse. According to some sources, Finland will need up to 50,000 migrants a year to plug the deficit. I wonder why these types of estimates haven’t been…
Finland and its government stoop to a new human rights low
The right-wing government of Prime Minister Petteri Orpo wants Finland to enforce a pushback law that will deny refugees the right to asylum. According to legal experts contacted by Helsingin Sanomat, they cannot recall a case in which a law sent to parliament is so clearly in conflict with international treaties signed by Finland. The…