Migrant Tales insight: While these types of encounters are usually traumatic, what happened is further proof that security guards are poorly trained.
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THE STORY WAS UPDATED
For many Russian nationals of diverse backgrounds seeking asylum, the EU can be a house of mirrors, a labyrinth that leads you to dead ends. It isn’t easy to peer too deep into the future since ordinary days appear like years under these circumstances. One such case is of Russian asylum seeker Ludmila’s family that came to Finland in 2017 and, fearing deportation, fled the country in November with her elderly mother, husband, and three other family members, including four cats.
Ludmila said that she was persecuted in Russia for working with her brother at the US Embassy in Tiblisi, Georgia. She did not elaborate but stated that she and her relatives could face prison terms if they return.
While Ludmila’s aim was to drive in two cars to France, their journey ended abruptly in Denmark, where they were stopped by border officials and returned to Sweden. They could not continue their journey because her mother suffered a stroke at the Danish-Swedish border.
Ludmila’s* 79-year-old mother is staying today in Fagerholt, a town located 156km from Malmö, where the rest of the family is staying. According to her, she has suffered six strokes, has epilepsy, diabetes, and suffers from heart problems.
“She is in a terrible condition and the staff at the care home [in Fagerholt] called and said that she needed hygienic products like soap, shampoo, and me clothes,” said Ludmila. “For some reason, my mother no longer was paid assistance, so she did not have money. To get these items, never mind the drive to Fagerholt, would cost a fortune for us. We get a weekly allowance of 134 krona [13.20 euros] a week.”
Fortunately for Ludmila, she was able to get help from other Russians at the camp for gasoline and buy items that her mother needed.
“Our situation [in Sweden] is terrible,” she continued without hiding her frustration, “We want to go back to Finland. It was a big mistake leaving.”
Ludmila claims that she was given misleading information from a social worker about their situation at the Imatra asylum reception center.
“The police visited us and said that we would not be deported back to Russia until we got the third ruling from the supreme court, which came on the same day,” she said. “The social worker advised us not to apply for asylum again [after three rejections] and that we’d be deported to Russia by force if we didn’t leave voluntarily.”
She added: “It goes without saying that we were shocked by the situation. We packed our things and left the country hoping that we’d reach France.”
Ludmila spoke highly of the ordinary workers at the Imatra camp but had criticism for the managers and the social worker, who treated some of the asylum seekers better than others.
“It was like an American crime movie,” she said, “Among the staff, there was the good cop and the bad cop.”
Living for six months in Sweden is nothing compared to what they had back in Finland. Ludmila said that the staff at the asylum reception center in Malmö don’t answer your questions and the food is terrible and “not fit for humans.”
Sobbing over the phone, she repeated her warning to other asylum seekers: “I recommend to everyone who is in the same situation as us to not run away from Finland and reach a dead end. Don’t leave. I don’t know what will happen to us in the future, but Finland is still better than this.”
Ludmila said that there are a lot of good organizations that help asylum seekers in Finland like Stop Deportations, Amnesty International, and Human Rights Watch. She encouraged asylum seekers should contact and seek help from such NGOs.
Some NGOs that help asylum seekers in Finland include Vapaa Liikkuvuus, Osaksi, Mosaiikki, Kaikkien Naisten Talo and Pakolaisneuvonnan hot line (weekdays 10-noon)
But there is a glimmer of hope in Ludmilla’s difficult family situation.
The migration authorities in Sweden have arranged for the whole family to return to Finland in May.
“We don’t have a specific return date, but we’d return by ship from Stockholm to Helsinki,” she said. “As I said before, I don’t know what is going to happen in the future, but we will apply for asylum again.”
Is she worried about what will happen when she returns to Finland?
“Of course,” she concluded. “We cannot see ourselves in Russia, which is out of the question. I love Russia, I have a lot of friends and memories there, but the political situation has not changed.”
*The name was changed to protect the person’s identity since she is an asylum seeker.
It was only in March when the Finnish Security Service (Supo) 2020 annual report warned that the great replacement theory is nothing more than a conspiracy theory used by far-right terrorist groups. Should we be surprised that Finns Party (PS) politicians like its leader Jussi Halla-aho, vice president Riikka Purra, and party secretary Simo Grönroos have spread this type of dangerous racism?
While these politicians are stoking the fires of hatred in Finland. In the United States, the Anti-Defense League, stated in a letter to Fox News the dangers of spreading the “great replacement theory,” which is nothing more than “a classic white supremacist trope that undergirds the modern white supremacist movement in America.”
Writes Supo in its last-year report: “One of the most noteworthy ideological motives of far-right terrorists is known as the Great Replacement conspiracy theory based on the idea of a fundamental threat posed by immigration and multiculturalism to the white population of Western countries. Views reflecting the idea of a Great Replacement have been highlighted in several far-right terrorist attacks.”
While the PS supports these types of theories, it should not surprise us. What is worrying is the reaction of the media to the Supo report and why it didn’t raise much concern about the potential danger of such theories, which have been the ideological smoking gun of terrorist acts in Norway on 22/7 and recently in Christchurch, New Zealand.
While dailies like Helsingin Sanomat commented on the issue, they relied more on what Supo said than exploring the topic further. They should have asked why these types of “theories” are being spread by the PS and what potential they have to fuel home-grown terrorism.
Giving the long history of race-baiting by the PS, it is never too late to call out the party for what it is – racist and dangerous.
For further information contact:
Enrique Tessieri, chairperson, Anti-Hate Crime Organisation Finland
+358 40 8400773
* Anti-Hate Crime Organisation Finland was founded in September 2018 and registered as an NGO the following month. The aim of the NGO is to tackle and eradicate hate crime and all forms of discrimination in Finland such as anti-Semitism, Islamophobia, Afrophobia, misogyny, and other forms of social exclusion through education and training, seminars, events, conferences, among others.
Perussuomalaiset (PS)* MP Mari Rantanen, a nurse, and policewoman, is known for her Islamophobic and white nationalist views. In the tweet below, she states that let’s take Finland back in the municipal elections of June 13.
Apart from the deception that in city councils we are going to exercise power like in parliament (sic), Rantanen, like her party, reveals her hatred for the government, the left, Black Lives Matter, feminism, communism, Antifa, and globalism.
As far as I can tell, this looks more like a pipedream, for now, to install PS leader Jussi Halla-aho as Finland’s Viktor Orbán of Hungary.
Does anyone ever ask Rantanen and the PS who they’d go after getting rid of the government and social movements like Black Lives Matter? Have you ever heard how PS MP Leena Meri pronounces Black Lives Matter? It took me a while to understand that it was English.
The PS is a party that is made up of air. Its main aim is to polarize Finnish society and spread Islamophobia and hatred of minorities. Their lust for power and malarkey is insatiable.
Let’s be honest: If Finland would be run by the PS it would be a catastrophe.
Amnesty International Report 2020/21 cites recurring problems with asylum seekers and children that the Finnish authorities continued to detain unaccompanied children and families. Finland continues to maintain strict rules in its immigration act approved in 2016 by Prime Minister Juha Sipilä’s government (2015-2019).
Some observers believe that these restrictions, like shortened appeal times and strict family reunification requirements, will be lifted by Prime Minister Sanna Marin’s government.
Other issues that the report cites are violence against women and girls, indigenous rights, low social security levels, excessive use of force by the police, legal gender recognition (Transgender law), the right to privacy (surveillance), and conscientious objectors.
Writes Amnesty International in its report:
The last time we read about Perussuomalaiset (PS)* Turku chapter chairperson Jyrki Åland was in January when he stated that Covid-19 deaths “would do a lot of good” in Varisuo, a neighborhood of Turku where 48% of its inhabitants don’t speak Finnish or Swedish as their mother tongue.
In a blog posting Monday on the PS website, Åland uses in the headline the infamous Nazi phrase found in Nazi German concentration camps: Arbeit macht frei, or “Work will set you free.”
The blog post, which is full of mistakes and forgets that EU citizens have a right to work in Finland, reflects the far-right hostility and mindset of the PS.
While the headline used by Åland shows his ignorance of history and the suffering of millions of Jews and others at the hands of the Nazis, the most incredible matter is that such a blog post headline could be published on the PS website.
Continue reading “The Perussuomalaiset: Promoting Nazi concentration camp slogans”On se ihmeelistä kuinka kansanlaulaja Irwin Goodman on suosittu. Kävin Wikipediassa ja lisäsin hänen sivulleen Mutakuono ja lakupelle laulu, joka oli yksi hänen suosituin laulujaan.
Wikipedia sensuuria on hyvä esimerkki siitä, kuinka rasismia ei vastustetaan ja kuinka valkopestään rasisteja ja loukkaavia lauluja.
Vaikka jotkut haluavat unohda tämä laulu, monet eivät koska se yhä loukkaa.
THE POST WAS UPDATED
Former Perussuomalaiset (PS) MP Ano Turtiainen has become a real thorn in the side of the far-right Islamophobic party. Apart from his racist postings of George Floyd, encouraging violence against asylum reception centers, assaulting a fourteen-year-old, wishing that asylum seekers would drown at sea, inciting civil war, anti-vaxxer buffoonery, and other issues.
His latest tweet states that he would be ready to kill people if a friend of his was forced to use a mask.
He tweets: “Everything pisses me off.
My friend said that ‘I would be ready to kill if someone in this
country forces me to use a mask.
I would not stand idly [if my friend would start to kill people].
Regards to my [MP] colleagues if you are for wearing masks.”
THE STORY WAS UPDATED
People who are suspected and later convicted for ethnic agitation defend themselves in the following manner: my free speech rights are being infringed; it is prohibited to debate immigration topics and that “I am innocent…”
Oulu Perussuomalaiset (PS)* MP Sebastian Tynkkynen has made a name for himself as an avid Islamophobe who mixes hate speech from the earnest debate. For some strange reason but in the same way as a junkie, he cannot lay off the (Islamophobic) stuff.
“If making immigration-critical policies is deemed illegal by the judiciary,” Tynkkynen was quoted as saying in Yle News, “then it can be said that the judiciary is in a very weak position. The opportunities for one party to take practical action are deprived.”
What is wrong with the above statement?
Note that he uses the term “immigration-critical” which is just a sugar-coated word for Islamophobic and xenophobic. Moreover, he is falsely claiming that “one party” is being deprived of acting against Muslims.
One party? That one party, the PS, spreads Islamophobic diatribe constantly.
You are not being censored, Tynkkynen, you are being told that there are ways to debate matters without victimizing, spreading hate and labeling whole groups of people.
Tynkkynen was convicted for hate speech in 2017 and 2016.
If his latest conviction is upheld by a court, he will have the most hate crime convictions of any MP in Finnish history.
The Finnish Security and Intelligence Service (Supo) 2020 report laid bear how ethnic replacement claims are the usual mix of far-right conspiracy theories and the smoking gun of terrorism from this fringe group. Should we be surprised that the far-right Perussuomalaiset (PS)*, which leads in opinion polls, is spreading this malarkey?
If we look at the PS leadership, there are three prominent members who are pushing this conspiracy theory: its chairperson Jussi Halla-aho, its first vice-president Riikka Purra and party secretary Simo Grönroos.
Most recently, PS MP Olli Immonen, who was a security guard before being elected as MP and who proposed an ethnic register for Finland, defended the racist lie of ethnonationalists.
Continue reading “A guide against the ethnic replacement conspiracy theory promoted by the PS”