Tag: ethnic profiling

Police ask Romanian Roma “to leave” Tampere

Posted on by Migrant Tales

A group of Romania Roma were woken up by the police in the middle of the night as they slept in their cars in a semi-abandoned parking lot of a match factory in Tampere, reports Aamulehti. According to the Romanian Roma, the police asked them to leave Tampere, which is a clear breach of their right to freedom of movement as EU citizens. 

Elviira Davidow, an artist and social activist, told Migrant Tales that while it’s not illegal to sleep in one’s car, the Roma are actively trying to get work in Tampere and have the support of some local activists and residents.

She compared the action of the police to that of a sheriff in a wild west movie, who asks the bandits to leave the town before sundown.

“What is incredible is that these people were pestered by the police in the middle of the night and told to leave Tampere,” she said. “As everyone knows, EU citizen have the right to freedom of  movement so what the police said is a breach of their civil rights.“

“We’re helping them in any way we can,” she continued. “The problem is that they can’t speak Finnish. They’re very interested in finding work and a few have in cleaning up the lot where they camped.“

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Read full story (in Finnish) here.

Davidow said that the action of the police in singling out Romanian Roma is quite common in other Finnish cities like Helsinki.

Ethnic profiling doesn’t only happen to the Roma but to other migrants, according to complaints received by the Ombudsman for Minorities.

The Council of Europe expressed concern last year over ethnic profiling by the police in Finland.Davidow said that helping the Roma during these times, when anti-immigration and anti-Roma sentiment are on the rise, people should try to inform themselves and understand the issues and challenges that groups like the Roma face.

“For me this type of activism is the most natural thing to do,” she said.

Meanwhile, Timo Puuska, the real estate superintendent of the plant, told Migrant Tales Saturday that the matter has been cleared up with the police.

“[The police] don’t have the right to touch their things or ask them to leave the premises,” he said. “They can ask someone to leave if they get an order from the district court or somebody needs police help to vacate a property.”

Puuska said that next week the Romanian Roma will begin to work on the lot by sorting scrap metal and furniture.

“In my opinion, these Roma are one of the best sorters in the world,” he said. “Nothing will go to waste when they sort.”

 

Finland’s ombudsman for minorities says Helsinki social services and health care employees practice ethnic profiling

Posted on by Migrant Tales

Finland’s ombudsman for minorities, Eva Biaudet, accused the Helsinki department of social services and health care of ethnic profiling because it requires its employees to check if “a foreign-looking” person has a residence permit, reports Helsingin Sanomat. 

The city of Helsinki said in a statement in June that its social services and health care employees will begin to ask foreign-looking people to prove they are legal residents of the country.

Read the statement (in Finnish) by the ombudsman for minorities here.

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Read full story here.

The present requirement on social services and health care employees, encourages them to place “unnecessary” attention on a person’s ethnicity, according to Biaudet. In the worst of cases, people like undocumented migrants, may be discouraged from seeking medical attention due to the requirement.

Migrant Tales agrees fully with the ombudsman for minority’s concern over ethnic profiling by Helsinki city employees. The sooner this stops the better.

Taking into account the negative political climate in Finland for migrants and visible minorities after the the 2011 elections, it’s unclear whether the ruling by Helsinki was motivated by a a genuine concern that non-residents such as tourists were abusing the system or simply because of ever-growing anti-immigration sentiment.

Latest drug police scandal sheds light on other issues like ethnic profiling in Finland

Posted on by Migrant Tales

The latest police corruption scandal concerning the head of the Helsinki police drug squad, sheds light on two matters: Our naivety as a society about institutional corruption, and the extent of  other issues like ethnic profiling by the police. 

Police corruption is nothing abnormal since it exists everywhere. What is abnormal, however, is believing that our police are immune to corruption. It’s exactly that type of wishful thinking that permits corruption to find fertile ground to grow. 

The Helsinki police drug squad chief facing bribery and conflict-of-interest charges is Jari Aarnio, who has naturally denied any wrongdoing.

According to YLE, citing Helsingin Sanomat, the charged policeman is suspected of having links with criminal organizations and a tracking device company, Trevoc, whose services are used by the police and Finnish Security Intelligence Service (Supo).

Let’s go for a moment back to a story that Migrant Tales published in 2012. After the Ombudsman for Minorities got a number of complaints by people who claimed they were stopped by the police due to their ethnic background, Christian Democrat Interior Minister Päivi Räsänen and the police stated flatly that no ethnic profiling happens in Finland.

Such an absolute claim is highly revealing since it suggests the opposite: ethnic profiling happens more often than we want to admit.

In many respects, it’s the same attitude that must have fueled the latest police corruption scandal. Denying that something doesn’t happen offers an opportunity to abuse the system and laws.

David Burnham, a former New York Times writer, states in the 1970s: “While almost all cops take free meals [in the United States], the idea of getting a break is the platform, the launching pad, from which the bad guys spring. A policeman who commits these acts does so for the same reason that others are thieves – inclination and opportunity.”

“Getting a free meal” can also mean turning a blind eye or playing down a problem like ethnic profiling. It is the launching pad to other abuse by the police of people like immigrants and visible minorities.

The police and the interior minister are, however, still adamant: No ethnic profiling goes on in Finland by the police.

Internal security secretariat head: Many racist crimes go unreported in Finland

Posted on by Migrant Tales

Some migrants may not report a racist crime in Finland because of mistrust of the police, poor Finnish-language skills and ignorance of one’s rights, according to Tarja Mankkinen, director of the ministry of the interior’s internal security secretariat. 

The Police College of Finland reported 918 suspected hate crimes in 2011, which is a 7% rise from 860 in the previous year.

For obvious reasons, Perussuomalaiset (PS) chairman Timo Soini is the only politician who has used these statistics to show that hate crime and intolerance aren’t a problem in Finland.

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Read full story (in Finnish) here.

Without providing any sources to back her claim and that YLE doesn’t cite any migrant or visible minority in the story, Mankkinen states that relations between the police and migrant community are ”very good” when compared with other countries. She is, however,”pretty certain” that many racist crimes go unreported.

How can relations between the migrant community and the police be “very good” if the majority of racist crimes go unreported?

Some reasons why some migrants are inhibited from reporting racist crimes to the police is language, difficulty in filling out forms, and ignorance of one’s rights never mind knowing what a hate crime is.

So what’s the problem? Is it that the migrant community and police have little contact or is their mistrust on both sides?

We have a lot of reason to doubt that matters are ok on the tolerance front.

An internal investigation  revealed last month that judges of the Helsinki Court of Appeal use racist and sexist language and constant denials that the police do not ethnically profile anyone shed light on a much bigger problem that we’re not addressing.

It is a good matter that little by little such issues are brought to light. There are good examples of cooperation in cities like Joensuu, where the police, anti-racist organizations, municipalities and migrants work together, according to YLE.

We need more proactive solutions to move forward rather than the usual denials by officials.

Internal investigation reveals Helsinki Court of Appeal judges use racist and sexist language

Posted on by Migrant Tales

What are we to make of a classified internal investigation into the behavior of the Helsinki Court of Appeals, which revealed some judges sexually harassed women at parties, used racist and sexist language during recesses and in meetings outside of the courtroom? If this occurs in our judicial system, how common is it among the police, army, civil servants and teachers?

Minister of Justice Anna-Maja Henriksson spoke out against the conduct of the Helsinki Court of Appeals judges as an ”extremely serious matter.”

“Everyone understands that victims are in a very vulnerable position,” she was quoted as saying on YLE in English. “This type of behavior is unacceptable and does not create confidence in the judicial system. This kind of language will not be tolerated, even behind closed doors.”

 

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Read full story (in Finnish) here.

The internal report, which was obtained by MTV 3, shows that Helsinki Court of Appeal judges used derogatory labels for blacks (n-word), Russians, Jews and gays as well as sexually harassed women at parties.

Even if the internal classified report on the unacceptable behavior of some judges is a step in the right directions, there’s been a lot of denial by other institutions in Finland when dealing with a serious problem like intolerance.

If you disagree, ask Interior Minister Päivi Räsänen, who flatly denies that the police ethnically profiles anyone.

Such an absolute denial by her is the best evidence we have yet that it does occur in Finland. It reveals as well that the authorities are doing little to nothing to tackle social ills like intolerance.

The Council of Europe expressed concern last month in a report over ethnic profiling by the Finnish police.

Apart from denial, our society goes to great lengths to avoid the issue of intolerance altogether.

Why does the Finnish media ask immigrants on a program if ethnic profiling happens in Finland? Why doesn’t it ask the Roma, who have lived in Finland for five centuries? Certainly they should know how they are treated by the police.

It will be interesting to see how the authorities deal with the racist and sexist behavior of some judges of the Helsinki Court of Appeal and how many heads will roll as a result, if any.

 

Ask Finland’s Romany minority about ethnic profiling by the police

Posted on by Migrant Tales

Two talk shows today, one on television and another one on radio, on ethnic profiling follows a report published Tuesday by the European Commission Against Racism and Intolerance (ECRI). Contrary to concerns by the ECRI, the police flatly deny in both shows that ethnic profiling takes place even if a policeman at the Helsinki Railway admitted that people are indiscriminately stopped because “they look foreign.”

Ethnic profiling, and denials that it even takes place, not only reveal how strong institutional racism is in Finland but how far the police will go in defending their right to carry out ethnic profiling of immigrants and visible minorities.

All those terms that serve to exonerate Finnish white privilege should be challenged. Why do you think people who were born here and have lived all their lives in this country are labeled “people with immigrant backgrounds?”  The aim of this label is to socially exclude non-whites as equal members of society and citizens.

What is a person with “immigrant background” anyway? Who decides if you have or don’t an immigrant background?

When the police divide the population into white Finns and “people who look like foreigners,” even if they are Finns, they are given a carte blanche to profile people indiscriminately on ethnic grounds.

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Watch television program here.

While it’s pretty clear that if the ECRI and Ombudsman for Minorities in Finland have expressed concern about ethnic profiling by the Finnish police, there must be something wrong.

Sadly, the whole debate concerning the issue of ethnic profiling in Finland points to denial by the authorities and Interior Minister Päivi Räsänen, who is either covering up for the police or totally ignorant.

Both the police and Räsänen sound like Perussuomalaiset (PS) chairman Timo Soini playing down racism in his party.  It reflects how the police, one of the most conservative institutions in Finland, doesn’t want to acknowledge that we are today an ever-growing culturally diverse society as well as ignorance.

Maryan Abdulkarim, who was interviewed on television today with deputy Helsinki police chief Lasse Aapio, correctly pointed out that not all “foreign-looking” people are immigrants but Finns.

On the radio program, National Coalition Party MP Kari Toivonen, a former policeman who denied that ethnic profiling takes place systematically, reveals his ignorance by pointing out that a foreigner called him a racist because in his country women can be raped freely.

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Listen to radio program here.

If Toivonen believes this to be the case, it shows a tremendous amount of ignorance on his part and why ethnic profiling continues to take and why the police don’t get it. No culture or any religion accepts rape as something “normal.”

It’s pretty clear that the same arguments used to justify ethnic profiling of groups like the Romany minority in Finland in the past is being used against immigrants today. Whenever immigrants or non-white Finns are stopped by the police it’s because they are either undocumented or victims of human trafficking.

Instead of going around in circles and wasting years on debating whether ethnic profiling takes place or not, why isn’t Finland’s Romany minority asked its opinion on the matter? What they may tell you is extremely unsettling: Even if they have lived for about five centuries in Finland, ethnic profiling – never mind discrimination – still takes place.

A US state department human rights report stated recently: ”Groups of Roma have lived in the country for centuries, and Roma are classified as a ’traditional ethnic minority’ in the ombudsman’s report. The Romany minority was the most frequent target of racially motivated discrimination, followed by Russian-speakers, Somalis, and Sami.”

Migrant Tales will ask members of Finland’s Romany minority for a future blog entry about ethnic profiling by the Finnish police.

Council of Europe concerned about ethnic profiling by police in Finland

Posted on by Migrant Tales

Is it a surprise that the Council of Europe’s anti-racism body expressed concern in a report that Finnish police ask people’s ID based on ethnic appearance? No need to get an official answer to find out because ethnic profiling doesn’t happen in Finland. Why not ask immigrants and visible minorities instead if you went a candid answer?

The Council of Europe anti-racism body, the European Commission against Racism and Intolerance (ECRI), published its fourth report Tuesday where it expressed concern over ethnic profiling by the police in Finland, reports YLE in English.

The ECRI report said that the police in Finland have the right to question foreign-looking people in places where they are believed to be causing problems.

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“There is one [regulation] which increases the risk of racial profiling by the police, so this is the police singling out people based simply on the basis of their visible appearance,” Council of Europe communications officer Andrew Cutting told Yle. “Another issue [the report] raises is that foreigners can be detained whilst their identity can be ascertained in certain situations, and that this too is discriminatory.”

Ethnic profiling is part of the the wider problem of institutional racism in this country.

The fact that the police and Christian Democrat interior minister, Päivi Räsänen, deny any wrongdoing concerning ethnic profiling is highly revealing in itself. Such denials suggest that the contrary does take place and that it is a much wider problem than the authorities want to admit.

The police and the interior minister are, however, adamant: No ethnic profiling goes on in Finland by the police.

But is this the case?

The Ombudsman for Minorities has been in negotiations with the police to have in force this year new anti-ethnic profiling guidelines.

Rainer Hiltunen, the Minority Ombudsman’s head of office, told Migrant Tales last year that he receives calls from foreigners who say they have been repeatedly questioned in the street by police. Some of those stopped are naturalized Finns and visible minorities.

Even if the police and Räsänen claim that foreign-looking people aren’t stopped by the police,  Migrant Tales  understands that the problem is far more common than officials want to admit.

It is, however, a good matter that European organizations like the ECRI are looking into the matter.

Read full ECRI report here.

 

 

 

Crime statistics are used shamelessly by certain groups in Finland to label immigrants

Posted on by Migrant Tales

Hannu Niemi, a Justice Ministry researcher, says that crime rates by immigrants in Finland have been exaggerated by the media, report Länsi Uusimaa and Uusi Suomi. He believes that there is a political aim by some groups to cite national origin in crime statistics in order to label whole groups.

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Migrant Tales spoke with Niemi in the spring, when an Aamulehti story written by a freelancer claimed that immigrants are overrepresented in rape crime statistics in Finland.

One of the matters that becomes clear from the Aamulehti story, as well as another one by A-Studio in August, is that both aim to label immigrants from certain regions like the Middle East as outright rapists.

Both stories place more emphasis on percentage figures rather than actual volumes, which are low. Apart from playing down or not mentioning that Finns commit the vast majority of rape crimes in this country, the A-Studio story went as far as to claim that the Iraqi community had “a problem” because it had the highest amount of rape suspects.

The total number of suspected rape cases by Iraqi immigrants was seven.

Niemi said that the number of rape crimes committed by immigrants is 1-2 per 1,000.

Even if it is clear that certain politicians and anti-immigration groups exaggerate rape and crime statistics for their own political purposes, there is an important factor missing that may shed light on why crime among 15-24 year olds is higher (over 1,600/10,000 immigrants) than among Finns (under 1,200/10,000) in the same age group. The missing factor is ethnic profiling by the police.

Here is a link that offers a comprehensive view of crimes committed by foreigners.

Are certain ethnic groups in Finland more likely to be stopped and arrested by the police than others?

Knowing the answer to this important question could shed light on the problem.

Niemi says that if the immigrant community’s age structure were the same as the Finns’, crime levels would be about the same in both groups.

 

 

 

 

Finnish police to have new anti-ethnic profiling guidelines in force in 2013

Posted on by Migrant Tales

Rainer Hiltunen, Ombudsman for Minorities head of office, told Migrant Tales that talks have taken place with the Finnish police to draft new guidelines and more effective monitoring to ensure that ethnic profiling doesn’t happen. The new guidelines are expected to be in force in 2013. 

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The Ombudsman for Minorities office expressed concern in spring about higher-than-average complaints from foreigners that they were being indiscriminately stopped by the police for spot checks.

Interior Minister Päivi Räsänen confirmed in April that the Finnish police doesn’t ethnically profile anyone.

Foreigners are sometimes stopped in Finland by the police when looking for undocumented immigrants, according to Räsänen.

“One of the problems [concerning ethnic profiling] is that when the police stop a person, they sometimes forget to tell them clearly why they have been stopped,” he said. “Better monitoring of the police in this respect is crucial to discourage ethnic profiling from happening.”

The Ombudsman for Minorities official saw England as a good example for the Finnish police to follow.

“The Stephen Lawrence case is a good case in point that shows how institutional racism can undermine the effectiveness of the Metropolitan Police of London,” he said.

 

 

Spiegel Online International: A case that successfully challenged ethnic profiling in Germany

Posted on by Migrant Tales

This story, which was published by German Spiegel Online International, offers some good points on how to challenge ethnic profiling. It’s pretty clear that this illegal practice goes on in Finland as well and is more widespread than believed.  

Migrant Tales asked in June blog entry: “How serious is ethnic profiling in Finland? Denials that it doesn’t occur at all by the police suggest that it may be a much wider problem than believed.”

Like any challenge facing society, we need proactive solutions. This story of a black German who was a victim of ethnic profiling on Spiegel Online International is not only inspiring, but offers hope: We can challenge such an injustice with our example.

An important matter to remember if you are harassed in public or are a victim of ethnic profiling and discrimination, is that it’s all about our children and grandchildren. We want them to live in a society that lives up to its values and that its laws should protect everyone.

The black German simply got tired of being constantly stopped by police because of his ethnic background.

“In the two years prior, they [police] had selected me about 10 times for a random check of my identification. It’s a pretty rotten feeling. I was born and raised here. I am German. According to the anti-discrimination law in the constitution, skin color is not grounds for a spot check.”

Read I didn’t want to be treated differently any longer here.