THE STORY WAS UPDATED In order to expose the lies of Prime Minister Petteri Orpo’s government, just look at the flagrant denials and outrageous claims. There are two that fit the far-right playbook to a tee: (1) We can shut the Finnish-Russian border and deny people the right to asylum; and (2) Vladimir Putin can…
Search Results for: Mari Rantanen
Closing the Finnish-Russian border is a stunt to boost to the government’s sagging popularity
How can you trust a party and government that builds its support on conspiracy theories about asylum seekers? You can if you are gullible. Due to over 300 asylum seekers who came from countries with terrible human rights issues due to wars like Syria, Yemen, and Somalia, the Finnish government has decided to shut four…
The Finnish government’s xenophobic knee-jerk response: The asylum seekers are coming! Shut the border”
Yle: “Today [Wednesday] about 70 asylum seekers asked for asylum [at the Russian border].” A-studio: “One hundred thousand people attempt to cross the Mediterranean annually [to enter Europe].” I’ve been quiet, watching with manifest unease, the actions of the government spearheaded by the Islamophobic Perussuomalaiset (PS)* party about the trickle of asylum seekers arriving at…
The Finnish government’s radical immigration policy is inhumane and ruthless
National Coalition Party (NCP) Prime Minister Petteri Orpo’s coalition partner, the radical-right Perussuomalaiset (PS)*, is going all out to make life as miserable as possible for migrants, especially asylum seekers and undocumented migrants. PS Interior Minister Mari Rantanen has threatened to take “a radical shift” in asylum policy and undocumented migrants. In her opinion, if…
Yahya Rouissi: Finnish government’s plans to ethnically profile racialized youths
Recent discussions by the Finnish government have raised concerns among human rights groups about the possibility of copying Denmark to carry out random spot checks on people in certain neighborhoods. If such a measure were ever implemented, it could lead to France’s controversial Article 24 which restricts videoing the police with the intention of “threatening…
The biggest challenges that Nordic countries like Finland have to challenge their gang violence problem are exceptionalism and denial
As we mentioned in our report in March, Finland’s youth gang problem is a tool used by the Perussuomalaiset and National Coalition Party to tar-and feather migrants. It is an excellent topic to drive home Prime Minister Petteri Orpo’s migration policy that will disenfranchise such people. In an Ykkösaamu interview Saturday, apart from Interior Minister…
When xenophobia becomes an obsession and knows no end
Finland’s Perussuomalaiset (PS)* Interior Minister Mari Rantanen is one of the government’s xenophobic “hotheads.” She, like PS Finance Minister Riikka Purra, will exploit and spread xenophobic soundbites to suit her party’s political agenda, which is nothing more than bashing brown and black migrants and refugees. Even if she is supposed to watch out for our…
The Finnish youth gang “problem” is a monster concocted by the radical right
What drives the government, particularly Minister of the Interior Mari Rantanen of Perussuomalaiset (PS), to give utmost attention and tackle the issue of youth street gangs? Is it a sincere attempt tosolve such a social problem, or an opportunity to further victimize migrants and minorities in Finland? The assertion isn’t far-fetched. The PS is historically…
The “Denmarkization” of Finland’s immigration and asylum policy
The Islamophobic Perussuomalaiset (PS)* party has had a long love affair with Denmark’s anti-Muslim immigration policy, one of the toughest in Europe. With loaded guns in government, the PS must be happy that they can adopt, with the blessings of National Coalition Party (NCP) Prime Minister Petteri Orpo and the two minor coalition partners, the…
Movies like Agnieszka Holland’s “Green Border” are needed more than ever today
Thanks to Agnieszka Holland’s “Green Border” we can now get a terrific glimpse of the suffering of asylum seekers who were used as political pawns by Belarus and Poland. Since it would have been impossible to film the movie in Belarus or Poland, Holland created a movie with actors to debict these people’s suffering. Writes…