Tag: Finland

The demonstration against deportation and tough asylum policies must continue

Posted on by Migrant Tales

Over a hundred people have joined a peaceful demonstration that began a week ago on Friday and which shows no sign of letting up was moved from near the Little Parliament to the Helsinki Railway Square. 

Despite a far-right group called Suomi Ensin (Finland First), which has tried to insult and ruin the demonstration with their presence, everything has been going well, according to Tiia Nohynek, who is taking part in the demonstration and said that there were about 100 people in the early evening.

“The atmosphere is really warm and Finns that pass by have shown their support by offering blankets and battery chargers,” she said. “The [far right] Suomi Ensi people are pretty faraway [about 500 meters] from us now. They have tried to disrupt our demonstration today but the police has stopped them.”

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???? ????? ?? ????? ?????? ?????? ???? SuomiEnsin (?????? ????)? ????? ?????? ????? ?????? ???????? ???? ?? ??? ?? ??? ?? ????? ???? ??? ????? Tiia Nohynek? ???? ????? ?? ????????? ????? ?? ???? ??? 100 ??? ?? ??? ???? ?? ??????.

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More pictures: Say no to deportations! Say no to the Finnish Immigration Service! Say no to the government’s harsh migration policy!

Posted on by Migrant Tales

Photos by Ignacio Pérez Pérez

Migrant Tales’ insight: One of our contributors, Ignacio Pérez Pérez has a sharp and artistic eye for photography. He took these pictures below of the demonstration against forced deportations that started in downtown Helsinki a week ago on Friday. 

Thank you Ignacio for documenting our struggle for social justice and against the harsh policies of the government and Finnish Immigration Service.

We will prevail in the end because we have nothing to lose. 

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Farrah and her three-year-old child: Don’t deport us back to Iraq from Finland!

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Farrah* is an Iraqi woman who came to Finland in September 2015 with her then one-year-old child. She left Turkey in the hope that she’d get a residence permit and would be able to bring her husband and two children in Turkey, aged 10 and 12.

“They [Finnish Immigration Service] didn’t renew my [one-year] residence permit which expired on January 17,” she said sounding as if out of breath on the phone. “I haven’t seen my family for [almost] two years.”

Since it is no longer possible to give residence permits to people like Farrah and her three-year-old child for humanitarian reasons, they face a bleak prospect: deportation from Finland.

A picture posted on Farrah’s Facebook page.

Farrah and her child are perfect examples of how Finland’s harsh immigration policy rubs salt on people’s lives. Before April, residence permits were granted for humanitarian reasons but that was scrapped in vote that MPs of the ruling parties [Perussuomalaiset (1), National Coalition Party and Center Party] and opposition Social Democrats and Christian Democrats approved.

Even if Farrah would have been able to get her residence permit renewed, there is no way she could bring her family in Turkey because of tighter family reunification guidelines.

“I came to Finland [almost] on foot from Greece believing that this was a humanitarian country that gives residence permits [asylum] to mothers and their children,” she continued, adding that she is today “very confused” and worried because she didn’t know what is going to happen to her.

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Picture of the week: Standing up for our rights to asylum and hurrah for our side!

Posted on by Migrant Tales

We’ve been watching, like all of Finland, the brave asylum seekers who are standing up since the weekend to a government and Finnish Immigration Service that cares little to nothing for their fates. 

These pictures that they are taking and the stories of defiance they are telling form part of the ever-culturally diverse history of Finland. We will look back on this protest like many others as milestones in our history.

This is how social movements ignite thanks to injustice, incomprehension and the steadfast courage of those who believe in our cause.

Migrant Tales salutes all of you brave people in Helsinki.

Source:

Iraqi asylum seeker FS: Deportation countdown begins

Posted on by Migrant Tales

The police service in Seinjäjoki, a city located 30km from the Finnish Emigrant Museum of Peräseinäjoki, told a young Iraqi asylum seeker “FS”* on Monday of his third rejections for asylum by the supreme district court and has two choices: To return “voluntarily” or “by force” to Iraq.

“They [police] said I have to leave in a week,” the young man’s voice, clearly distressed, said by phone speaking excellent English.

Migrant Tales got the following email from  on Tuesday:

          Email sent to Migrant Tales Tuesday by FS.
Who is this young man?

He arrived to Finland in October 2015 and got his third rejections from the supreme district court on Monday.

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Facebook: “We won’t send you back to a hell called Iraq,” writes Kerstin Ögård

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Hi guys

I just had this thought that to do something about our “murderer-government” (:D :D) we really need you Iraqi people to not work against each other. There is so much suspicion and lies and mistrust…some people working together with OUR government(??), giving them information just so people save their own asses—guys, this country does not work that way! 🙂 ( I understand everybody just do what you need to do, to stay safe..I am not judging, I understand this…)

Here in Finland we had a civil war in 1918. The Reds, the peasants and poor people, were fighting the Whites, the upper class. The Whites won, but it did change the country; the Reds got better situation, got to own their own land, after the civil war.  It left deep wounds though. And these wounds finally only healed during the Second World War, when Finnish people had to unite to fight the Russians. My father, who is born 1938, still calls the Civil War of 1918 ”a revolutionary war.” I told him it was not a revolutionary war but but a civil war, brother against brother.

Life in Finland is so different from Iraq…here we feel safe. I don’t have to mistrust people, I don’t have to check for suspicious cars overtaking me on the motorway, I don’t have to be afraid that someone will contact me just to milk me information that they want to misuse…I can trust people and feel safe.

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(Migrant Tales 12.2.2017) Dear Sweden, don’t play ball with the Sweden Democrats – Finland is the best example of the disaster that awaits you

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Dear Sweden, 

In all of the Nordic region we have seen far-right populist parties rise in this century with a hostile even vicious anti-immigration and anti-cultural diversity agenda. Of all the Nordic countries, you are the only one in the Nordic region where populist anti-immigration parties have not formed directly or indirectly a part of government. 

A poll in November, however, showed a sharp rise of the far-right Sweden Democrats to 21.5% when compared with 12.9% it got in the 2014 parliamentary elections and not trailing too far behind the Social Democratic Party (25.7%) and Moderates (22%).

The Sweden Democrats are the third largest party today in the 349-seat Riksdagen (parliament) with 49 seats (12.9%) in 2014 compared with 20 seats (5.7%) they won in 2010.

In an analysis piece by Expo, an anti-racism and anti-fascism NGO in Sweden, they explained the rise of the Sweden Democrats in 2010 to the Riksdagen in the following words:

“The Sweden Democrats gain from presenting themselves as an alternative to the so-called establishment,” wrote Expo chairman Daniel Poohl. “The bloc politics that has marked the election campaign has turned the Sweden Democrats into a distinct third alternative, an underdog.”

Poohl continues to warn us in 2016 about the Sweden Democrats: “That’s where we come in. This is the white paper [stating that they aren’t a racist party and have no ties to fascism] that the Sweden Democrats would have to do, but will never be able to write. The racism found in the Sweden Democrats isn’t something that belongs to history but is a part of the party’s concept.”

Migrant Tales wrote the following letter to Sweden in june 2015 warning about the perils of playing ball with a populist party that loathes immigrants:

“Today, you, dear friend in Sweden, are the only country that can restore sanity to this part of Europe and effectively challenge this force that is undermining and threatening our Nordic values. We need you to hold out and show leadership, which has been shamefully lacking in the rest of our region.”

Read the full story here.

However, it looks like there is a tear in the cordon sanitaire that excluded the Sweden Democrats from Swedish mainstream politics. Anna Kingberg, the head of the Moderates, said that her right-wing conservative party would be ready to negotiate with the Sweden Democrats, according to Politico.

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If YLE has exposed discrimination against dual nationals in the defense forces why don’t they call it institutional racism?

Posted on by Migrant Tales

Why isn’t the national media or any other NGO in Finland calling out YLE’s scoop about how the defense forces and ministry of defense could be in violation of our constitution and an example of institutional racism?

Why doesn’t the media or anyone else for a fact state clearly that statements by President Sauli Niinistö and Prime Minister Juha Sipilä, who want to find a way to get around Section 6 or our Constitution by discriminating against dual nationals, isn’t seen as labeling and victimizing whole groups?

Why doesn’t anyone say clearly that much of the debate on dual citizenship is embedded in denial about a social ill like racism in Finland?

It is incredible that during our centenary celebrations of 2017 as an independent country that President Niinistö doesn’t see how his remarks and apparent disdain for dual citizens labels and harms a whole group.

With respect to Sipilä, how many trust him considering that he broke his promise to house asylum seekers in his home in September 2015?

Those attacking and labeling dual nationals in Finland represent power and Finnish exceptionalism. They would care less about minorities like Finnish Russians, even if what they say reinforces discrimination and harms minorities.

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Undermining and attacking dual citizenship rights is a hostile provocation against social equality and cultural diversity in Finland

Posted on by Migrant Tales

The ongoing debate about the perceived threat of dual nationals in Finland and the proximity of municipal elections should raise some serious questions. One of these is why are we having such a discussion now and who is fueling it?

The answer is more than obvious and highlights a segment of society that refuses to see multicultural Finns, migrants and minorities as equal members of society. These are none other than the Perussuomalaiset (PS)* and other parties that are suspicious of cultural diversity in varying degrees, like the Center Party and National Coalition Party.

The proximity of the municipal elections on April 9 is crucial for the PS, which has seen its popularity in the polls plummet, to show to its government partners that it is still has political life in it.

Thursday’s A-studio talked about the threat that dual citizens pose. PS MP Simon Elo revealed with his comments that plans to discriminate against dual nationals and water down their rights is a general political strategy of his anti-immigration populist party to undermine cultural diversity in Finland. See full talk show here.

The debate on dual citizenship in Finland reveals how institutional racism works in this country and how some political parties will stop at nothing to undermine the civil rights of minorities.

YLE News published on January 31 a story where it claimed that the defense forces place restrictions on dual nationals of Finland and Russia.

“Finnish Defense Forces have not been waiting for legislative changes but have adopted their own rules and procedures for dealing with Russian-Finnish dual nationals,” YLE News reported.

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