Migrant tales - Page 279 of 535

Finland’s and fortress Europe’s razorblade chicken feed response to the refugee crisis

Posted on November 12, 2015 by Migrant Tales

Like cancer, fear, inaction and xenophobia cripple and destroy nations.

Finland and Europe are looking more lost than ever concerning the refugee crisis and this has been shamelessly exposed in the raw at the EU’s Malta summit. If we fail to resolve the refugee crisis as a region we will face another problem that will be many times worse: Forfeiting our noble values and freedoms for short-term ineffective quick fixes.

One of these freedoms at jeopardy is the Schengen Agreement, which allows passport free travel through 26 European states.

Since such short-term responses to the crisis, which aren’t responses at all, are doomed to failure it means that the matters will get worse before they improves. We know well what is at stake in Europe when we pander xenophobia and scapegoat groups.

According to The Guardian, there’s nothing to suggest that the “the confusion, disputes and mudslinging of the past few months” have brought the EU closer to a solution. Probably the most worrying question is that our inaction will exonerate isolationist hardliners like Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orbán.

“I don’t say he [Orbán] should be entirely supported,”a senior diplomat at the Malta summit was quoted as saying in The Guardian. “But he has a point. There is some truth in what he says. Drastic, restrictive positions would have helped earlier.”

In Finland anti-immigration politicians like Perussuomalaiset (PS) MP Laura Huhtasaari are stating that we should scrap our international refugee agreements and laws in order to stop refugees from coming to the country.

While some of you may not think much about what Huhtasaari posted, her party is one of the coalition partners in government of a prime minister who offered his home to refugees not too long ago.

Imagine. Here’s an MP of a government party of a country making such a claim that saw over 1.2 million of its people emigrate between 1860 and 1999 and relocated some 420,000 refugees after hostilities ended with the former Soviet Union in September 1944.

Laura Huhtasaari Raato, if we close our border it’s still ok to seek asylum. We must now decide what agreements and laws we can respect because we have reached a limit [with the number of refugees].

Raato Laaksonen Do you mean that lawmakers will decide not to respect laws?

Laura Huhtasaari If laws and agreements bring considerable harm and turn against us we have to review whether we plan respect them.

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Attempted arson attack against Helsinki’s Pitäjämäki asylum reception center

Posted on November 9, 2015 by Migrant Tales

Migrant Tales understands that Helsinki’s Pitäjämäki reception center was the target of an arson attack on Friday or Saturday. A Molotov cocktail was hurled at the reception center but didn’t light up properly.

A handgun and tommy gun was found in the possession of a man sitting in his car near the Pitäjänmäki reception center.

The man in the car wasn’t apparently planning to attack the reception center and wasn’t connected with the arson attack, according to the source.

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On Friday the police apprehended a man in car with a handgun and tommy gun near the Pitäjänmäki reception center.

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While this attempted arson attack was not reported by the media the question is how many of these types of unreported attacks have their been in Finland?

Two arson attacks have already been reported by the media: in Lammi (6.10) and Ylivieska (31.10).

Reija Härkönen: Luolamiehet eivät ole hyviä diplomaatteja

Posted on November 7, 2015 by Migrant Tales

Reija Härkönen

Suomi syksyllä 2015: mies ajaa autollaan vastaanottokeskuksen pihaan partioimaan. Autossa hänellä on pistooli ja konekivääri. Poliisi lausuu ja päivälehti kirjoittaa: ”Hän ei aiheuttanut vaaraa kenellekään.”

Vain vähän tätä ennen kotkalainen kunnallispoliitikko on julkaissut nettisivuillaan kuvan konetuliaseista ja kehotuksen tervehtiä maahan saapuvia ihmisiä perinteiseen suomalaiseen tapaan. Kunnallispoliitikon puolueen paikallisosaston hallituksen jäsenen puolustus on: ”Eihän siinä mitään pahaa ollut, mies oli vain euforisessa tilassa, koska vainajien muistelupäivä lähestyi”.

Viikkoja, kuukausia ja vuosia tätä ennen suomalaiset kansaedustajat ovat nettisivuillaan kiihottaneet kansaa vihaan maahan muuttavia afrikkalais- ja arabitaustaisia ihmisiä vastaan.

Tätä kirjoittaessanikin suomalaisen eurokansanedustajan nettisivuston etusivulla lukee: ”Lähi-idästä ja Afrikasta tuleva porukka ei integroidu eikä kotoudu ja syynä islam. Jos tänne tulisi porukkaa esim kauko – idästä niin tilanne olisikin aivan toinen. He kotoutuu ja integroituu yhteiskuntaan ja tekee töitä. Suomi ei tarvitse lisää somaleja eikä irakilaisia etc vetelehtijöitä elämään sossupummeina.”

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Migrant Tales Literary: Would you buy a used car from PS’ Timo Soini?

Posted on November 7, 2015 by Migrant Tales

Timo Soini is chairman of the nationalist populist Perussuomalaiset (PS)* party. After the most recent opinion polls showed that the political future of the PS is bleak to say the least, what will Soini do after his party returns to the minor political leagues? Will he start to sell used cars?

Would he sell used Halla-ahos or, maybe, Immonens, Eerolas, Elos, Huhtasaaris and Slunga-Poutsalos at rock-bottom prices?

Would you buy such a used car from him and would you trust his promises?

Why not buy an Immonen? The engineering is as simple as the foul and poisonous arguments it exhales from its behind. So simple, in fact, that the biggest threat to this car and its driver is adding a square root to its 1 + 1 = 2 anti-immigration arguments. Buy it to impress racist simpletons. Source: www.zwischengas.com/de/blog/2012

Here’s a spanking-new Eerola! Impress your friends with this vehicle that comes with a year supply of barf bags. Is it a rocket or a car? Who knows? You’ll respond that even if you are a practical nurse that has worked 12 years at a refugee center you still consider yourself an authority on immigration (sic!). Look at the headlights and rocket “fascist-style Mussolini” look. It’s backlights are intended to be more subdued in order to neutralize the racist demeanor that flashes whenever you signal to switch lanes. Source: www.dominnie.blogspot.com

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Institute of Race Relations: A secret punishment

Posted on November 6, 2015 by Migrant Tales

Jon Burnett

An important new report by Medical Justice, ‘A Secret Punishment’ – the misuse of segregation in immigration detention, highlights the human damage caused by the use of segregation in immigration detention, as well as its political purposes.

Arriving at Heathrow Airport in 2011 on a family reunion visa, 24-year-old ‘MD’ expected to be reunited with her husband – a refugee whom she had not seen in three years. Instead, she was questioned by an immigration officer and, after becoming confused by the questions, subsequently detained in Yarl’s Wood immigration removal centre. She did not leave until nearly a year-and-a-half later, by which time her mental health had deteriorated to such an extent that she was deemed to be ‘lacking capacity’ under the Mental Health Act. In detention she had sliced open her forehead with the top of a sardine tin, cut her face and stomach with broken pieces of china and attempted to strangle herself with a telephone cable. She self-harmed at least eleven times between August and November 2011, the response to which was to handcuff her, restrain her and remove her from association with other detainees. The High Court later ruled that what she been though amounted to ‘inhuman and degrading treatment’ under Article 3 of the European Convention of Human Rights, which also covers torture.

That segregation – the isolation of an individual for up to 23 hours a day – can amount to torture is now established. It is a ‘secret punishment’ according to Medical Justice. Their report documents the scale of damage caused by segregation by examining their own casework with people who are or have been detained. It also draws on what little external scrutiny exists – most notably the inspection reports from HM Inspector of Prisons (HMIP) and the annual reports of the Independent Monitoring Boards (IMB).

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Why are integration programs in Finland doomed to failure?

Posted on November 6, 2015October 24, 2025 by Migrant Tales

Here’s the billion-euro question: Why are integration programs in Finland usually doomed to failure? What can Finland and Europe learn from countries like Canada that have a more successful approach to integration?

One matter is for certain: A big part of the problem resides in between our collective ears. Do we see migrants as a problem or an asset to our society? Certainly factors like human and financial resources play important roles in determining how successful our integration programs are.

You don’t have to search too far to understand the challenges we face in making people feel that Finland is their home and that they’ll be treated with respect and as equal members of society. Even if the answer to the problem sits under our noses the big question is if we want to do anything about it.

Like in any other country, social exclusion in Finland is not only costly to tax payers but for migrants, who are obliged to go through a slow rites of passage, or integration ritual, which doesn’t even assure them of a job after all of their efforts.

Brandy Yanchyk, a Canadian documentary film producer, recently showed her most recent documentary, Finding Edge Road, in Finland.

See Find Edge Road demo here.

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What has the PS given to Finland apart from destroying our international image, labeling migrants and polarizing society?

Posted on November 5, 2015 by Migrant Tales

The Perussuomalaiset (PS)* are one of the worst surprises that Finland got after 2011. If the latest opinion poll is anything to go by, the nationalist populist party has returned to the minor political leagues, where it was originally from.

While it was relatively easy for the PS to increase its popularity in the opposition with the help of a complacent media and politicians that turned a blind eye, being in government has been a totally different story.

As the polls show, the PS has been a paper tiger all along that believed, after two parliamentary elections, in its self-deception and forget its campaign promises.

One of these continues to be an empty promise that they will fix the Somali and Muslim problem in Finland. Like many of its empty pledges, they never will.

The PS is like cheap fast food. It may taste good after the first bite but the impact on your health is devastating.

Timo Soini and the PS tried to show – and succeeded – with poker faces these past years to defy the laws of politics like gravity and create a political revolution with the help of anti-immigration and anti-EU rhetoric.

The PS took a risk by joining the coalition government and they near-destroyed themselves in the process. Not only did they cause great harm to themselves, they have put in harm’s way as well Prime Minister Juha Sipilä’s government and all of Finland.

Due to the PS’ serious woes, it may well be that we may have new elections as early as next spring.

Go to PS website here.

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YLE poll: Support for PS of Finland takes another dip to 9.8%

Posted on November 4, 2015 by Migrant Tales

A poll commissioned by the Finnish Broadcasting Company (YLE) revealed more pain for the nationalist populist Perussuomalaiset (PS)* party, which saw its support plummet below 10% to 9.8%. The party that gained the most in the poll were the Social Democrats, which saw their support rise by 2.4 percentage points to 20.7%.

Trying to become a “mainstream” party in government has been like digesting poison for the PS, which has based its support on nationalism and anti-immigration rhetoric.

For Finland’s ever-growing culturally diverse society the poll is the best news yet in a long time.

It’s naive to believe that the PS could ever abandon its racism and nationalism since that would mean committing political hara-kiri. Being a member of government has apparently a swifter hara-kiri for the party.

Read full story here.

While some have waited for the populist party to face the same fate as its predecessor the Rural Party in the 1970s, when the party imploded due to internal bickering, it is the voters that are giving the thumbs down today to the PS.

One diplomatic source told Migrant Tales recently that the PS appears like the sinking Titanic. The orchestra is playing and that distracts people from their doom.

I have written before that the even if the PS may implode or return back to the minor leagues, it’s what is coming after them that could be scarier.

Support for the PS will be tested in April 2017, when Finland will hold municipal elections.

* The Finnish name of the Finns Party is the Perussuomalaiset (PS). The English-language names adopted by the PS, like True Finns or Finns Party, promote in our opinion nativist nationalism and xenophobia. We therefore prefer to use the Finnish name of the party on our postings.

Finnish PS Kotka counclman under police investigation for ethnic agitation

Posted on November 4, 2015 by Migrant Tales

Mertsu Merivirta is a Perussuomalaiset (PS)* party councilman of the southern Finnish city of Kotka. His Facebook wall is full of nationalist anti-immigration posts and sexism. If you’re going to victimize migrants and minorities why not include women as well.

Is it a surprise that Merivirta is a member of the nationalist populist PS?

All of the above is second- and third-hand knowledge about the PS, a party that gets attention and support by spreading bigotry about migrants and minorities.

Merivirta is under police investigation for ethnic agitation for a Facebook post on October 28, which has been removed.

In light of the police investigation, the Kotka city board not only condemned what was published but recommended that the PS city council group suspend Merivirta from taking part in city council meetings until the investigation is over.

City of Kotka councilman Metrsu Merivirta was in “a euphoric” state when he posted this on his Facebook page, which was removed. The post states above the machine gun that soon you’ll have as neighbors “happy migrants.” “Greet them in the traditional way in Finland,” the post adds.

Guess what the answer was from the head of the Kotka PS city council group, Freddy Van Wonterghem, a far right politician who has been sentenced for ethnic agitation as well?

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When Supo labels all asylum seekers and migrants in Finland

Posted on November 3, 2015 by Migrant Tales

Finnish security intelligence police Supo head Antti Pelttari claimed at a press conference Tuesday that there are two terror threats that the country faces: the rise of refugee links to terrorist groups and hate crimes linked to neo-Nazi groups, according to YLE News.

It’s ironic that just before the 8:30 pm TV news broadcast that quoted Supo chief Pelttari, there was aired an anti-labeling commercial with a young boy. On his shirt there were labels like “problem youth,” “loser,” “abandoned,” and “not wanted.”

Reading the mixed statements by the Supo chief, which were echoed in the Finnish media, the child below could have well been an asylum seeker with the same apathetic expression and the following labels on his shirt: “terrorist,” “criminal,” “coward,” “parasite.”

See full commercial (in Finnish) here.

Reading the story in YLE News about the Supo press conference it was difficult to figure out what Pelttari was saying.

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