Tag: Finland

Giving into to racist violence against the #righttolife protestors is handing a carte blanche to commit more hate crimes

Posted on by Migrant Tales

Today at around 4:30 am the camp where the Iraqi and Afghan #righttolife demonstrators have been protesting since February were a target of an attack that set alight one of the tents. One person got his hands burned while trying to put out the fire and was taken to the hospital for treatment. 

“One person threw something flammable at the tent and ran away,” said Nour Jamal, a #righttolife activist who has been demonstrating since mid-February. “This is the worst attack we’ve experienced so far but we won’t be deterred by what happened.”

Jamal said on Thursday that name-calling and racist harassment by people who pass by is common and happens daily. He said that the worst days are Saturday nights because a lot of people are drunk and shout racist obscenities.

Pictures from where the arson attack took place. If asylum seekers would have acted in such a cowardly way their would be cries of murder from many far-right and ant-immigration sectors of society. Source: Facebook.

At first the police service considered the incident that took place in the early hours of the morning as a minor incident but later on upgraded it to vandalism.

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The two extremes claim by Finnish President Sauli Niinistö and the government is nothing more than an Okie from Muskogee

Posted on by Migrant Tales

Ever since Finnish President Sauli Niinistö characterized the ongoing debate on migrants, migration, asylum seekers and minorities as a debate between two extremes, the big question is who is the other extreme? 

This “two-extreme” characterization of the debate by Niinistö and government ministers like Paula Risikko reveals their ignorance and objection to the debate. It shows as well their hope that the debate will be between white people in this country.

As everyone knows, Migrant Tales together with many anti-racism activists do not consider ourselves as “extremists” but normal folk that support human rights, Nordic values and cultural diversity.

It’s clear that politicians like Niinistö, the government and many others see these types of values with suspicion and contempt. That is one reason why they dub the debate as “two extremes.”

US President Richard Nixon, facing impeachment and a challenge from liberal and progressive sectors, used the same tactic by stating that it was a minority that opposed him and that law-abiding USAmericans, the silent majority, like the Okie from Muskogee, who was behind him.

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Finnish ministry of interior survey about our “polarized debate” on asylum seekers reveals the government’s prejudices and failures

Posted on by Migrant Tales

A new study published Tuesday by the interior ministry and carried out by Vaasa University raises some disturbing questions. What does the survey address and what does it reveal?

One of the many claims of the survey is that those surveyed want a more dispassionate public debate about asylum policies.

An interior ministry statement reads: “Finns would like to be able to discuss asylum policy without the fear of being stigmatized; the discourse should be relevant and fact-based. The issues that were highlighted in the discourse on asylum policy were social polarization, promotion of integration activities during the asylum seeking process and the impact of the asylum seeker situation on security.”

Other findings of the survey reveal already known tough public views about asylum seekers. For example, 82% of the respondents felt that it should be made perfectly clear to those asylum seekers that get a residence are obliged to follow our social rules  and that language courses should be emphasized (87%).

The survey doesn’t tell us what those “rules” are for the simple fact they most likely don’t know either.

Read the full statement here.

Other findings of the survey published in Helsingin Sanomat include: 83% responded that if an asylum seeker lies in the the interview process to get asylum it should affect directly his or her chances of getting a residence permit; 78% felt that the police should forcibly deport those who get rejected for asylum if they do not leave the country.

Other matters that the survey showed was that asylum seekers cause social conflicts (59%), increase crime (57%) and the threat of terrorism (64%).

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Iraqi and Afghan demonstration protestors attacked in Helsinki by Finnish thugs

Posted on by Migrant Tales

It’s clear from the comments of far-right Suomi Ensin protestors and even of some Helsinki city councilors that they want the #righttolive demonstration that has been going on since February to end. Even so, far-right demonstrators are confident that the police and Finnish political establishment is on their side that they video and upload an attack against two demonstrators of the #righttolive camp. 

Writes Saku Timonen in his blog: “This [far-right] Suomi ensin group constantly stirs conflict and provokes [the #righttolife demonstrators]. They would like to fight and when they’re about to they use an illegal weapon [spray].”

One of the most disturbing matters about the incident is the police, who are nowhere around and allegedly dragged their feet to capture the perpetrator, one of which is

Imagine if the asylum seeker demonstrators would have acted in the same way as these thugs?

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IQujPf8yhT8

Guess who uploaded this video? Right, Marco de Wit of far-right Suomen Ensi (Finland First). They have tried everything to make the lives of the asylum seekers protesting peacefully as difficult as possible. Interior Minister Paula Risikko visited the Suomen Ensi camp in February and gave them a thumbs up.

Writes Helsingin Sanomat: “At the end of the incident, a little over 20-year-old man’s face was sprayed [by the Finnish perpetrators with a pepper spray]. After this happened, the victim went to the closest restaurant to wash his face but he was followed by the group that had sprayed him [in the face]. These [Finns] threatened the man for a short while in the restaurant, according to the police.”

The hate speech and provocations are real.

Migrant Tales published a video below on Wednesday and attracted over 6,200 views.

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How Sampo Terho’s essay in 2007 is still the norm but in a different context to fuel fear and racism of migrants and minorities

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Finnish Perussuomalaiset (PS)* parliamentary group leader Sampo Terho wrote a decade ago in Kanava an essay with the classic far-right populist rhetoric about the threat of migration. His point of view in the essay is not only sinister but was a central argument used by parties like the PS to attract voters and that their racism was “normal.”  

UPDATED (20.3): By publishing this baloney in a respected publication like Kanava, Terho’s aim is to substantiate his racist points of views.  

Many politicians who wrote racist things in the past and which helped them get elected want us to forget.

We cannot and should not forget for the sake of decency and respect for future generations.

Terho is not just any PS MP with racist views, but one that is vying to become chairman of the anti-immigration party after Timo Soini steps down in early June.

In a letter to the editor to Helsingin Sanomat, Terho claims that his or Halla-aho’s election to the helm of the party will not force it a path of “sheer darkness and evil.”

Columnist Yrjö Rautio wrote in Helsingin Sanomat Friday that if either Terho or Halla-aho become chairman of the PS it would not only mean the end of Soini’s populist project but a slip into “sheer darkness and evil.”

We disagree with part of Rautio’s analysis. The PS was always a party of “sheer darkness and evil” and its main architect is Soini.

Who is Terho anyway and what are his thoughts about migration and cultural diversity?

Even if the PS MP has tried to hide what he wrote in Kanava, it is a classic example of the racism and ethnocentrism that is spread by far-right and right-wing populist anti-immigration groups at the time to instill fear, hostility and racism against migrants and minorities.

Let’s look at some of the main points of Terho’s essay headlined, “European’s past and future.”

Read full essay here.
  • Terho groups humans in the essay into three racial groups: “Negroid, Mongoloid and Caucasian;”
  • The European population of Africans will grow three-fold by 2050;

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Timo Soini and the denial of Finland’s racism problem

Posted on by Migrant Tales

Perussuomalaiset (PS)* chairman Timo Soini announced after being at the helm of the anti-immigration party for twenty years that he’ll step down as chairman in June. The narrative and the way that some newspapers and politicians are picturing Soini is a good example of Finland’s denial of racism. 

Who gave a voice and platform to politicians that have made their political careers on spreading racism and bigotry like Jussi Halla-aho, Sampo Terho, Olli Immonen, James Hirvisaari, Tony Halme and a very long list of others? All you have to do is to take a look at the hateful quotes these politicians have made against migrants and minorities to understand the connection between Soini and them.

Why is it difficult to exclude and call out a party like the PS, Soini and its politicians as racist bigots?

The answer is simple: Very little to no cultural and ethnic diversity.

Racism doesn’t impact them directly and it’s invigorating for some of them to watch since they reinforce their closet racism.

PS MP and leader of the party’s parliamentary group Sampo Terho is worried about white Europeans becoming a minority due to Muslims. Source: Verkkouutiset.

While there are many examples of how our denial of racism is perpetuated, a few recent examples highlight how it’s done. One of these is Social Democratic Party MEP Liisa Jaakonsaari who said in last week’s A-studio:Talk that Soini was now ok because “he’s not a racist.”

“I respect Timo Soini,” she said. “He has said a number of times that he isn’t a racist, even if I want votes of the racists, I’m not racist [he’s said].”

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Somali National Television: Stop deportations! demonstration in Helsinki

Posted on by Migrant Tales

Xassan Kaafi Maxamed Xalane is a Somali National Television journalist who shares another news clip about the Iraqi and Afghan asylum seekers demonstrating since February against unfair deportations and rejections for asylum by the Finnish Immigration Service. 

We at Migrant Tales agree and support 150% these people who were attracted to Finland by their hope to live in a country that could give them shelter and which respects human rights.

That was pretty much a lie if we look at the track record of Prime Minister Juha Sipilä’s government.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9FmVWkkwmXE

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Asylum seekers: Finland is not a country that abides by the rule of law

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What does a comment by a police service official say about our country if he obstructs an asylum seekers’ right to justice? Migrant Tales understands that an Iraqi family, made up of a husband, wife, mother-in-law and a child, was told the following by a police official after receiving their first rejection for asylum from the Finnish Immigration Service (Migri).
 
“Don’t appeal the decision [to the district court] because you’re going to get a negative decision anyway,” the police official is said to have told the family.
 
What does the answer from the police official reveal about his knowledge of our legal system and who has access to it? 
 
Children demonstrating in May at the Kolari asylum reception center that led to the sacking of the deputy manager.

The police official’s answer to the family reveals, in our opinion, not only contempt for the asylum seekers but for our laws and institutions.

If we have police officials that advise and give legal counsel to asylum seekers as if they had a crystal ball, it’s clear that we’re in trouble. We are in a predicament because for the police official to give such advice it means that their is widespread complicity.

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Announcement by Lex Gaudius: Immigration Service, police and government petition

Posted on by Migrant Tales

 

IMMIGRATION SERVICE, POLICE AND GOVERNMENT PETITION

Dossier Faulty decisions made by the Immigration Service to the asylum seekers and actions of the authorities related on them.

Underwrites Representatives of the asylum seekers from Afghanistan and Iraq; In cooperation with International law firm Lex Gaudius

 

I. FAULTY DECISIONS MADE BY THE FIINISH IMMIGRATION SERVICE

– (GENERAL) There have been many faulty decisions depending on different reasons some as:

  1. Unprofessional translators;
  2. Unprofessional new employees, who did not receive a proper training in such a delicate matters as issues regarding asylum requests;
  3. The employees who were responsible on valuating and making the decisions regarding singular asylum requests, were put under pressure because of the goal settled by the directors of the Immigration Service;
  4. Sources used by the Immigration Service are not comprehensive. Sources should be updated and enlarged. A crucial matter is that the Immigration service uses a large  amount of sources and facts given by the Human Right organizations’ reports;
  5. The Finnish Immigration Service’s country reports regarding Iraq and Afghanistan are not in line with the Swedish one. Country reports are not in line with the Swedish or international Human Rights organizations;
  6. The Finnish Immigration Service is interpreting the law more strictly than required, due to political pressure. For example, the Finnish Immigration service is applying the internal flight option against recommendations by international Human Rights organizations or the Swedish guidelines. For example, Sweden does not apply internal flight to Sunni Arabs in Iraq;
  7. Many times cases are not evaluated individually. Standard statements are copied to different kinds of cases, even when it has nothing to do with the person in question.

(SINGULAR) There have been many contradictory and illegal decisions some as:

  1. Huge amount of asylum cases where it is applied the article 88 e of the Finnish Law for the foreigners (Ulkomaalaislaki is applied 2004/301). There are too many cases where the Immigration service believes that the asylum seeker is persecuted in his home country and that he would have all the grounds for being granted a refugee status, nut still the Immigration service decides that the asylum seeker can return safely in another part of his/her home country. Asylum seekers coming from South and North Iraq are sent in Bagdad and asylum seekers coming from Bagdad are sent to Southern Iraq;
  2. Three brothers from Bagdad with same personal stories and backgrounds, one living in Helsinki and the other two living in Seinäjoki. The one living in Helsinki got refugee status while the 2 brothers living in Seinäjoki got negative decisions by the Immigration service and are now appealing to the administrative court.
  3. Two brothers, one gets asylum and the other one not, although they have the same case. The only difference is that the one with a positive decision is 13 years old; [1]
  4. The Finnish Immigration service claims that they apply the benefit of doubt in unclear cases. However, reality is quite the opposite – in many cases the Immigration service claims without further proof that there is no persecution or danger of persecution in the future; [2]
  5. Breaking the UN convention of the Rights of the Child, article 10 (families whose members live in different countries should be allowed to move between those countries so that parents and children can stay in contact, or get back together as a family). The Finnish Immigration stated in this decision that is in the best interests of the child to grew up without the presence of the father. [3]

The administrative court has serious difficulties in finding a remedy to all deficiencies made by the Immigration Service. All of those negative decisions given by the Immigration service on wrong grounds, put in danger the legal rights of some asylum seekers.

The Finnish Chancellor of Justice, Jaakko Jonkka, has criticized the methods of the Immigration service when its employees examined the cases of the asylum seekers. This is extremely serious criticism, that has to be taken in consideration properly. The Immigration Service has admitted its mistakes but still many of those faulty decisions have now power of law, meaning that all this new information, which is coming out, can’t rectify the faulty decisions.

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