Tag: Finland

Ali’s journey (May 20, 2018): Last full day in Mikkeli, Finland

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In the past months, we have followed twenty-one-year-old Ali’s difficult life in Finland as a young asylum seeker.* He’s been detained and sent to the Joutseno immigration center in October for 32 days and again in February for a shorter time. 
On both occasions, he was released but decided that he’d return to Iraq “voluntarily” after the supreme administrative court overturned his appeal.Ali is a converted Christian and is a member of the Pentecostal Church of Mikkeli, where he’s lived at an asylum reception center during most of his stay in Finland.

“I went to the church today, and they gave me their blessings,” he said. “I’ve said goodbye to some of my friends at the camp. It hasn’t been an easy day because the reception center has become my home with friends I know for a long time.”

Ali’s stay in Finland and Germany was about a year and a half.

“The journey to Finland from Iraq feels shorter than the one tomorrow back to Iraq because hope fueled it,” he said. “But the journey back to Iraq feels that it will be longer because there are a lot of question marks and mixed feelings.”

Ali admits that he has not slept well during the last weeks.

“A lot of good things happened to me in Finland but a lot of bad things as well,” he continued, adding that his detention in Joutseno was one of the low points of his stay in the country.

Continue reading “Ali’s journey (May 20, 2018): Last full day in Mikkeli, Finland”

Little to no trust in the Finnish police profits those who exploit needy migrants

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Migrant Tales gets a steady stream of accounts of exploited asylum seekers by unscrupulous employers. Some of the stories are tragic since they push asylum seekers, who get paid under the table, to do the company’s criminal work.

The last person that such migrants would turn to for help is the police. The police in Finland has shown time after time that it is no friend of the migrant community never mind that of undocumented migrants.

With the help of Prime Minister Juha Sipilä, who heads the most anti-immigration governments in a long time, the police have lost chunks of their credibility with asylum seekers, who are in contact with them when they break them the news at the police station of their second rejection or hold them like common criminals in cells and deport them back to their home countries.

If the police and authorities had credibility with asylum seekers and migrants, a lot of crimes such as human trafficking would come to light. This is an unfortunate situation because the culprits are making money off people who have no rights in this country.

While there is little interest in the Finnish media about how migrants are exploited by greedy employers never mind politicians sticking up for them, Migrant Tales will always stay true to these people exposing those who exploit them.

We will stand by them even if few would care less.

New investigation finds Laura Huhtasaari’s plagiarism of master’s thesis more extensive than originally believed

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A new investigation of the plagiarism of far-right Perussuomalaiset (PS)* party vice president and MP Laura Huhtasaari’s master’s thesis showed that “major parts” were copied and were more extensive than Jyväskylä’s University’s conclusions, according to YLE News.

An investigation by the university earlier this year of Huhtasaari’s plagiarism showed about 10% was copied, but an investigation by MOT journalists revealed that about 30% of her thesis was directly copied from just one source.

Here is the question: Why does the university say one thing and the MOT journalists’ report says another? Will there be another investigation?

The fact that the university came to one conclusion and an investigation by YLE showed more extensive plagiarism does not make the university look good. If Jyväskylä University wants to protect its credibility, it would be vital for it to answer the MOT journalists’ findings.

Before the master’s thesis scandal in January, Reija Härkönen revealed how Huhtsaari had plagiarised the writing of others in her blog entries.

* After the Perussuomalaiset (PS) party imploded on June 13 into two factions, the PS and New Alternative, which is now called Blue Reform. Despite the name changes, we believe that it is the same party in different clothing. Both factions are hostile to cultural diversity.  One is more open about it while the other is more diplomatic. 

A direct translation of Perussuomalaiset in English would be something like “basic” or “fundamental Finn.” Official translations of the Finnish name of the party, such as Finns Party or True Finns, promote in our opinion nativist nationalism and racism. We, therefore, at Migrant Tales prefer to use in our postings the Finnish name of the party once and after that the acronym PS.

QUOTE OF THE DAY: Tightening of immigration laws in Finland and the exploitation of migrants

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The near-constant negative labeling of visible migrants like Muslims and minorities by too many Finnish politicians and society has not only weakened their civil rights, as Amnesty International pointed out, but led to their exploitation by dishonest and greedy employers that promise them a job and a ticket to a residence permit.

Anti-immigrant forces in Finland create a criminal environment for the exploitation of asylum seekers and migrants.

 

Plan Finland campaign: Using a pregnant African girl for all the wrong reasons

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Dr. Faith Mkwesha, who is the founder and executive director of Sahwira Africa International non-government organization, expressed shock when she first saw the Plan International maternity wear in a campaign using a 12-year-old Zambian girl called Fridah.

Sahwira Africa International has an African resource center that organizes cultural activities and consultancy on African culture and development issues.  

Dr. Faith Mkwesha.

Dr. Mkwesha, an Åbo Akademi researcher, sees a lot of problems with the Plan International Finland’s campaign which used Finnish couture designed clothes by Paola Suhonen and photographed by photographer and journalist Meeri Koutaniemi.

Pictures of the 12-year-old pregnant Fridah. Source: Plan Finland.

“I was shocked when I saw the advert for the first time at a bus stop, but at closer inspection of the whole campaign and other things came to light,” she said. “For one, this campaign is by white people and how they perceive black girls and women. The pictures reinforce that black girl children, not teenagers, are sexually promiscuous and black men as pedophiles. It also encourages black phobia.”

While there are unwanted pregnancy cases among girls in all cultures, Dr. Mkwesha asks, “what would happen if a Finnish white European twelve-year-old pregnant girl would be pictured and portrayed in such a sexual manner?”

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Hussain Kazemian: A former Shia militia member seeks asylum in Finland

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Migrant Tales insight: This story below, written by Hussain Kazemian, an Afghan living in Finland, was of a countryman called Sadr, 27, who spoke on condition of anonymity about his failed request for asylum in Finland. He got his first rejection from the Finnish Immigration Service (Migri) in spring 2016. Sadr appealed, but the administrative court  overturned it winter 2017. He is now waiting for the supreme administrative court’s decision on his second appeal.

Sadr was one of the hundreds of thousand undocumented Afghan refugees in Iran 1 who also entered and sought refuge in Finland in 2015. 

He had no idea how to carry a rifle, but after he was recruited and after some weeks of military training in Iran, he was prepared to fight as a soldier of the Iranian Shia militia on the front line in Syria. In the end, he had fears and escaped the war, but it was not possible for him to go back to Afghanistan because of the National Directorate of Security of Afghanistan (NDS), which detains anyone who took part in the conflict in Syria.

After living many years and working in different cities of Iran earning lower-than-normal wages, Sadr was detained many times and forced to be in deportation camps. Even if they sent him back to Afghanistan, he returned to Iran to work. He joined the Iranian Shia militia only to get a residence permit 2 in Iran.

“It was frustrating for me to do construction work and get paid lower wages than normal,” he said. “Sometimes the employer did not even pay me my wages because he knew I didn’t have the right to complain in that country since I was an undocumented Afghan refugee. Nevertheless, I decided to go to a registration office and have a look and ask questions about becoming a member of the Shia militia.”

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CORRECTION: Iraqi asylum seeker married to a Finn is allegedly in hiding and fears deportation

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Migrant Tales understand that Ibrahim, an Iraqi asylum seeker who is married to a Finnish woman and expecting their child in September, was summoned to appear at the Oulu police station Wednesday but did not appear because he fears being detained and deported to Iraq.*  

We wrote on April 18: “Other legal matters concerning Ibrahim’s residence have fueled uncertainty for the family. One of these, are seven appeals to overturn Ibrahim’s deportation orders from Finland after being rejected twice for asylum by Migri.”

In that story, the wife said she feared that the police could apprehend her husband and deport him back to Iraq.

“We live on the fifth floor,” she said in April, “sometimes when I hear the elevator or people knocking at our door, I fear that it may be the police that has come to deport my husband. We thought it would be a good idea if Ibrahim would attend swimming classes with our newborn but we decided against it because of fears that the police may apprehend and deport him.”

This story will be updated.

 

Read the full story here.

* A source who is in touch with the Iraqi asylum seeker believed that his countryman was detained by the police and would be deported Wednesday. We now know, allegedly, that the asylum seeker was supposed to visit the police station in Oulu. He did not appear but has gone into hiding for fear that he will be deported. 

Exposing white Finnish privilege #51: The police are the defenders of white power and privilege

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Ask Finland’s Romany minority If you want to understand how the Finnish police service reinforces and defends white power and privilege. I did this recently, and the answers did not surprise me. 

According to a member of the Roma community, the Finnish police play down discrimination, especially if it involves a member of that minority group.

“They simply don’t care to investigate cases of discrimination against the Roma because some of them are so racist,” the person said, agreeing that institutional racism in the Finnish police service is a problem.

One of the problems with discrimination cases, hate speech and hate crime is that due process is slow and ineffective.

It is not only the Roma but migrants and other visible minorities that have to deal with a police service that takes its time big time with discrimination and racism cases.

Certainly, the question we must ask is why.

The answer: Because that is the way things are meant to be.

White Finnish privilege #51

Do I trust the police service in handling discrimination and racism cases?

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QUOTE OF THE DAY: Of course a child needs a mother and father!

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“In today’s Finland, it is nothing uncommon for the Finnish Immigration Service (Migri) to reject family reunification by a Finnish spouse because the child does not need a father.Doesn’t need a father? Migri should ask Argentina’s Mothers and Grandmothers of Plaza de Mayo if the father, mother, and grandparents are key to a child’s identity and well-being.”

During the dirty war (1976-83) in Argentina, when the state murdered an estimated 30,000 people, members of the armed forces adopted the children of those they apprehended, tortured and threw in unmarked graves. Even if the child was brought up by a person who directly or indirectly caused the death of his birth parent, the search for the child and grandchild continues to date.

A child will always look for his real parents. Growing up without a father or mother is unnatural and painful.

Unofficial translation of the rejection of an applicants family reunification request: “The applicant and family reunification sponsor started to live as a family during a period when there were uncertainties about the applicant’s residence permit in Finland. They must have understood that living as a family in Finland could not be a possibility.”

“The wellbeing of the applicant’s and family reunification sponsor’s unborn child does not require granting a residence permit to the applicant. The applicant has with his actions tried to bypass rules about entering [Finland]. The child can live in the future in Finland with the family reunification sponsor.”

“Soy Jorge Sampaoli, director técnico de la selección argentina. Si naciste entre los años 1975 y 1981 y pensás que podés ser hijo de desaparecido, acerate a las Abuelas de Plaza de Mayo. Yo te busco para que te encuentres.” 

“I’m Jorge Sampaoli, the coach of the Argentinean national football team. If you were born between the years 1975 and 1981 and you think you may be the son of “disappeared” people, get in touch with the Grandmothers of Plaza de Mayo. I will seek you so you can find yourself.” 

Finland’s hostile environment for migrants, asylum seekers, and all types of minorities

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At Migrant Tales, we are hearing more and more stories about the suffering and plight of undocumented migrants and how greedy companies are taking advantage of asylum seekers. Some of these that we have heard are asylum seekers working full-time in black for 500 euros a month and a promise that they will get hired as staffers, which would help them to get a residence permit. Or what about working 12 hours for 50 hours a day but only declaring 30 hours to the tax authorities?

While it is questionable that such a person would ever get a residence permit because of the needs test, or that the job is first offered to an EU citizen, the inequalities and exploitation found today in the Finnish labor market is the doing of our politicians. They have created the bait and lure for such exploitation to take place.

In the political rhetoric and crusade to make Finland unattractive to future asylum seekers, politicians have lost total sight of how their policies have weakened the rights of all migrants and other vulnerable groups. Their message is clear: It is ok if you are exploited in Finland. We don’t care because we do not want you here in the first place.

Like in the UK, Finland is presently gripped by a hostile environment against migrants and minorities.

In the United Kingdom, Prime Minister Theresa May, when she served as home secretary (2010-2016), is credited for the government’s “hostile environment” policy towards undocumented migrants. Since you cannot keep hatred on a short leash and cause it to act selectively, that hostile environment has spread to the Windrush generation,  the first wave of immigrants who arrived in the UK in the 1940s and 1950s from the West Indies.

Even if May is responsible for this hostile environment, it was all part of a broader scheme to take voters away from UKIP, which based its then rising popularity on attacking and stigmatizing migrants.

The political opportunism in the Tory party’s anti-immigration rhetoric already costs the UK dearly. They are not only in its anti-immigration soundbites but in the fact that they believed they could control such a social ill and keep it on a short leash.

Epic fail.

Elsewhere in Europe as in countries like Finland, there is a hostile environment against migrants.

The hostile environment in Finland is possible thanks to the Perussuomalaiset (PS)* and by other mainstream parties, like the Center Party, National Coalition Party, Social Democratic Party, which give the same message but in a different langauge.

Amnesty International’s Annual Report 2016/17 highlights below some of the factors that created a hostile environment in Finland.

Source: Amnesty International Report 2016/17.

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