Comment: The worst countries for an asylum-seeker to go to in the European Union are Greece, Italy and Malta, according to an editorial by Suomen Pakolaisapu.The big question is that the EU should scrap the Dublin Agreement, which requires refugees to apply for asylum in the first country they arrive in our region. If you were a refugee would you want to apply for asylum in a country like Greece?
This twenty-minute video clip, The Battle for Attica Square – Greece, highlights the subhuman treatment refugees receive in Greece. I would especially recommend it to some Finnish politicians like Social Democrat MP Kari Rajamäki and policy-makers. When they watch the shameful treatment that refugees receive in Greece, they should ask how many of our great grandparents, grandparents or parents left Europe not too long ago to the Americas as refugees or immigrants.
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Turvapaikanhakemusten tutkintavelvollisuutta EU-maissa määrittävä Dublin-asetus joutaa täyshuoltoon.
Jo usean vuoden ajan Euroopan neuvoston ihmisoikeuskomissaari ja ihmisoikeus- ja pakolaisjärjestöt ovat kritisoineet Dublin-järjestelmää, jonka mukaan turvapaikkahakemus käsitellään vain yhdessä jäsenmaassa – yleensä ensimmäisessä, johon hakija saapuu.
Tähän maahan turvapaikanhakija siis palautetaan, jos hän lähtee etsimään turvaa muusta EU-maasta. Järjestelmän pohjaoletus on, että kaikissa EU-maissa on samantasoinen turvapaikkajärjestelmä.
Näin ei kuitenkaan ole. Kreikassa, Italiassa ja Maltalla turvapaikanhakijalla ei ole takeita päästä turvapaikkajärjestelmään ja vastaanotto-olosuhteet ovat ala-arvoisia. Tämän takia kymmenet tuhannet ihmiset jatkavat matkaa muihin EU-maihin tavoitellakseen oikeutta ja suojaa. Useimmat pohjoisemmat EU-maat ovat jättäneet huomioimatta sen, että Dublin-asetus antaa mahdollisuuden ottaa käsittelyyn muussakin
maassa näiden muiden EU-maiden kautta saapuneiden turvapaikanhakijoiden hakemuksia – yleensä hakijat palautetaan tomerasti Etelä-Eurooppaan. Kuitenkin esimerkiksi YK:n pakolaisjärjestö UNHCR on jo vuodesta 2008 suosittanut, ettei ketään käännytettäisi Kreikkaan.
[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gPl9PW7ONIQ]
Syksyn aikana kritiikki Dublin-käännytyksiä kohtaan on voimistunut. Uusimassa Pakolainen-lehdessä on juttu Dublin-asetuksesta, jossa pureudutaan Kreikan heikkoon ihmisoikeustilanteeseen. Jutussa nostetaan esille, että useat maat ovat päättäneet toistaiseksi jäädyttää käännytykset Kreikkaan. Herää kysymys: miksi Suomi ei ole toiminut Norjan, Ruotsin, Islannin, Iso-Britannian, Belgian ja Alankomaiden tavoin?
Soitto Maahanmuuttovirastoon paljastaa, että siellä ollaan erittäin hyvin perillä sekä Kreikan erittäin heikosta ihmisoikeustilanteesta että siitä, että monet muut EU-maat ovat jäädyttäneet turvapaikanhakijoiden palautukset Kreikkaan. Suomesta palauttamatta jätetään
ainoastaan erityisen heikossa asemassa olevat, kuten sairaat tai yksintulleet lapset. Suomessa Dublin-asetuksen tulkitsemisesta päättävät virkamiehet ovat kokoustaneet viimeksi lokakuussa, mutta palauttamisten lopetusta ei pidetty tarpeellisena. Viraston Dublin-asioista
vastaavan virkamiehen sanoin terveitä aikuisia miehiä voidaan lähettää Kreikkaan.
Käytännössä juuri nyt harva päätyy Suomesta Kreikkaan asti – suurin osa Dublin-palautettavista hakee Maahanmuuttoviraston palautuspäätökseen täytäntöönpanokiellon hallinto-oikeudesta tai Euroopan ihmisoikeustuomioistuimelta, jotka ovat syksyn aikana myöntäneet sen kaikille Kreikkaan palautusta pelkääville. Ongelma on se, että käännytyksen jäädyttäminen jää sen varaan, miten aktiivinen lakimies kutakin hakijaa puolustaa. Kaikki eivät saa oikeutta: palautetut päätyvät elämään Ateenan kaduille ja puistoihin rakentuviin slummikyliin, toiset teljetään yliahdettuihin poliisivankiloihin.
Kaikki käännytykset Kreikkaan tulisi välittömästi keskeyttää ja nykyinen Dublin-järjestelmä lakkauttaa. Tilalle tulisi rakentaa uusi turvapaikkajärjestelmä, jossa turvapaikanhakijoiden ihmisoikeudet turvataan.
Marcus Floman
Pakolainen-lehden päätoimittaja
Its not the politicians you should be trying to sell multiculturalism to but the Finnish people.Astrid thors tried to take Finland down the multiculturalism road and this has ended her political career, the Finns relationship with the Swedish population is about loyalty to Finland and understanding of the Finnish identity and her views shows she no respect for either and if her party does not dump her before the next election it will be going down the same route as any party going into next years election with a pro immigration platform which is political suicide .So far out of all all the pro multiculturalism parties only the greens have stated their immigration polices but they know they are fighting a losing battle they seem to be spending more time in talking about forming a “Opposition government”. One day Finland may accept multiculturalism but I think we all know now that it wont be in the next parliamentary term. And clips which you have posted wont change the conciseness of the tough Finnish attitude they know the true meaning behind “Asylum” and any member of parliament who wants to retain their seat next year will say the same thing
it better to be in the warmth of the parliament house than outside in the cold
Hi Video, thank you for your comment and welcome to Migrant Tales. One of the first matters that struck me about your comment is what do you mean by multiculturalism? Do you mean that Finland will not be a culturally diverse society? Does it mean that Finland will force assimilation on newcomers? Does it mean that Finland will require that foreigners throw away their culture, or that their identity has no place in our society? Maybe this is your aim. Could you elaborate a bit more.
And this relates to the editorial… how?
Members of parliament wont support the idea to remove the Dublin agreement, at the moment in Finland any “Pro immigration” views wont win you support.The number of people who support “Multiculturalism” in Finland are a handful compared to those who don’t and not enough to make any change within the government way of thinking.
videos showing asylum seekers conditions with the purpose to drive up some sympathy and support, but if you did understand the views of the majority of Finnish people then you would fully understand why members if parliament do not want to or are to scared to support any idea which goes against what the majority of Finns are thinking.Astrid thors time as minster for immigration was a complete and utter failure for any one who supports multiculturalism, and she is now is following what she is told to do in a desperate attempt to save her job.
Finland immigration laws in the coming decades will be decided by other countries, regardless of the EU or Human rights laws other countries in Europe and some close to Finland will be having immigration laws based around choice of culture and nationality and some will be talking about removing asylum altogether and once one country does another will follow and Finland will have no other choice to follow . Finland passed together asylum laws which where the same as other EU countries which shows it is willing to follow the view points which is governing immigration laws across Europe. If you are asking what Finland’s immigrations policies will be like in 10 years time you should focus more attention on the immigration polices of Norway or Denmark or Holland because theirs will dictate Finland’s.
If Finland is heading down the road of Denmark, Norway and Holland, you are going to have few people coming here. It boils down to a very basic question: Do you think immigration is a bad or good thing for society. If we look at the Americas, my answer is clearly on the latter. I personally believe that Europe still has a lot of ethnic issues to overcome. If Finland cannot reap benefits from immigration it is its loss – nobody elses. It is an opportunity lost because some people still live in an antiquated ethnic world dating back to the nineteenth century.
But hey, come to Sulkava or some small towns in rural Finland. That is what this country will start to look like more. And why? Because we could not accept others and because we were so exclusive. Pretty dumb, no?
So the majority of Finns would like to send torture victims to Greece, even though this will mean that a stream of complaints against Finland are upheld in the European Court of Human Rights? In other words, the majority of Finns do not care about the international reputation of Finland?
That is certainly a shift in public opinion, but perhaps we won’t have to hear the question what you are thinking now about Finland? quite so often.
After watching that short documentary I must confess I have no problem with what I’m seeing. If a situation arises as it has done in Greece where the government and police do nothing to solve the refugee/asylum seeker problem then the citizens will eventually get fed up and take it into their own hands even if it’s not pretty as there is no alternative.
If I decided to go to someone’s private garden tomorrow to live and sleep there, and the local authorities refuse to remove me, what actions or attitude to you think the owner of the private garden behind his house is going to take? Welcome me with open arms and roses?
Remember Greece is not a rich country compared to it’s Northern or Western European counterparts especially after it’s financial crisis so who is going to pay to brand new luxury detention centres? Obviously not the people who are going to stay there so the government and it’s citizens are paying for a solution to a problem that they never wanted involving people who are foreign to themselves. Does that sound fair?
People forget that entering a country illegally is a crime in itself. So for punishment what do the culprits expect? A holiday or to live like a king? Also you may think that treating illegals to luxury standards will solve the problem but that will only give more motivation and ambition for more illegals to enter. So it will be a never ending problem as there will never be enough new centres.
I feel sorry for Greece, the birthplace of democracy because it’s a problem brought to them purely based on geographical factors. Hopefully the government will be able to find a way to repatriate these illegals back to their own country where they belong.
I don’t care if you call me cold, heartless, or unsympathetic I’m just a practical realist. The less burdens a country takes on the easier it is to prosper. Refugees and asylum seekers are nothing but a hindrance otherwise every country will have open border policy for any nationality.
Klay
Your ignorance of the applicable law is staggering. If these really were illegal immigrants, then the Dublin Agreement would not apply.
Stick to chemistry and leave international humanitarian law to people with a clue.
-“If Finland is heading down the road of Denmark, Norway and Holland, you are going to have few people coming here. It boils down to a very basic question: Do you think immigration is a bad or good thing for society. If we look at the Americas, my answer is clearly on the latter. I personally believe that Europe still has a lot of ethnic issues to overcome. If Finland cannot reap benefits from immigration it is its loss – nobody elses. It is an opportunity lost because some people still live in an antiquated ethnic world dating back to the nineteenth century.”
This is your problem Enrique. You are too thick to get your head around simple things.
Americas? Ask natives how that immigration turned out. Americas were clean slate with minimal baggage. That is, once natives were exterminated.
Europe is not clean slate. We have societies and cultures with centuries and millenias of history. We are not americas, comparing us to americas is act of imbecile who does not understand how societies work.
European states cannot, and must not, look into Americas for example. Because situation, history.. Hell, practically nothing is comparable. Europe needs solutions based on European situation.
As for your derogatory attitude towards people who HAVE cultural roots. Your attitude is disgusting. You always talk how people should respect culture and whatnot of immigrants, but never show ANY respect for culture and tradition of natives.
Is this your little American speaking? That natives are nothing but slaves or subhumans who should not be granted any attention?
With her usual authoritarian mindset, Tiwaz imagines that immigration to Finland will proceed by means of waggon trains full of settlers moving westward across the plains, shooting any reindeer or natives that happen to stand in the way.
lol@Tiwaz
Here is another sad example of the Tiwaz being used today by a neo-Nazi group in downtown Helsinki.
http://patriootti.com/artikkeli/katuaktivismia_helsingissa
If you check out their website, take special note of their numbers. Do you know what a taxi party is in Bolivia? It has so few members that they could all fit inside a taxi.
Tiwaz assures us elsewhere that she chose her name due to an interest in Old Norse mythology (which is not even Finnish). On this blog, however, her views correspond very closely to the manifesto of this obviously neo-fascist group, which just happens to use the Tiwaz symbol on its flag and on all of its publications, just like the Hitler Jugend of old.
It all brings to mind the old Monty Python sketch (0.45: I am not a racialist!).
Lol@Tiwaz