Migrant Tales continues to hear about how some security guards at Luona, a private company that operates eight asylum reception centers in Helsinki, Espoo, Vantaa, and Hyvinkää, continue to treat asylum seekers with disrespect. In February, the company’s general manager, Milja Saksi, said that the company will take the necessary steps to address the racist treatment of its asylum seekers.
“We don’t permit racist or inappropriate behavior [from our staff] towards asylum seekers,” Saksi was quoted as saying earlier this year. “We have made personnel changes if people aren’t suitable to work at our reception centers.”
One source that Migrant Tales spoke to claimed that little has changed concerning how some security guards treat asylum seekers at the Pitäjänmäki reception center.
The security guards were alerted at 3:30am that somebody was suspected of smoking in one of the rooms. When the security guards arrived at the room they asked for six asylum seekers for their IDs. The asylum seekers refused to show it to the security guards. This prompted them to call the police.
In a short while, 4-5 police cars arrived with some 10 police to the Pitäjänmäki reception center. One of the security guards, who was trying to act tough, wouldn’t even give permission to one of the asylum seekers to go to the toilet.
How much does it cost taxpayers to send 4-5 police cars to investigate a minor incident like smoking?
Anti-immigration politicians and vigilante groups like the Soldiers of Odin claim that there aren’t enough police to guarantee security.
Possibly this minor incident above shows how we squander such resources on petty problems that security guards should resolve professionally but can’t because they’re on their personal power and ego trips.
“There are still a lot of security guards [working at Luona] who are sons of bitches,” the source said. “They call the police for minor things because they want to show the asylum seekers who is in charge and who has power.”