Finland Archives - Page 157 of 359

Police superintendent of Finland: No need for repatriation agreement with Iraq, we can deport asylum seekers if we wish

Posted on December 5, 2016 by Migrant Tales

“We have always returned people there, and we seek to continue to do so. There is a false notion, if you could call it that, that a repatriation agreement must be signed before the police can carry out a forced return, but it is not true,” National Police Board Chief Superintendent Mia Poutanen, is quoted as saying in YLE News.

This statement by Chief Superintendent Poutanen has a lot of Iraqi asylum seekers worried. It is then possible to force Iraqi asylum seekers who got a negative decision from the Finnish Immigration Service (Migri) to go back to their country?

Read the full story here.

One asylum seeker that Migrant Tales contacted expressed shock but knew that Iraqi asylum seekers are deported back to Iraq against their will.

The whole process, which appears to be full of legal contradictions and question marks, is the result of a law that did away with residence permits on humanitarian grounds.

Continue reading “Police superintendent of Finland: No need for repatriation agreement with Iraq, we can deport asylum seekers if we wish”

UPDATE: Minor asylum seeker at the Villa Meri reception center sent to hospital after getting pepper-sprayed by security guard

Posted on December 5, 2016 by Migrant Tales

UPDATE (3:52pm): According to one security guard contacted by Migrant Tales, pepper spray can only be used on a person if the security guard is assaulted physically. Pepper spray is used only for defensive purposes.

The source at Villa Meri claims that the minor who was pepper-sprayed did not attack the security guard physically. “He didn’t put a hand on him,” said the source.

If pepper spray is used, the security guard must inform the police and remain next to the victim if he or she needs help. A report is written with one going to the police, the security company, and to the client, which would be in this case Hoitopalvelu Metsätähti.

It’ll be interesting to see what happens in this case and if the asylum seeker didn’t attack the security guard.

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We continue to get worrisome news from the Villa Meri asylum reception center of Rauma. An asylum seeker at the center, who is a minor, was peppered sprayed on Friday and taken to the hospital. Why? Because he protested that his sister, who came from Helsinki to visit him, had to leave the center.

The Villa Meri reception center, which is located 91km north of Turku, is managed by a private company called Hoitopalvelu Metsätähti, which is a subsidiary of Helsinki-based health care and social services company Mehiläinen.

“The problem was that the [young] asylum seeker didn’t want his sister to be kicked out of the camp since there were no buses to Helsinki and because she had no place to stay,” an asylum seeker at Villa Meri told Migrant Tales by phone. “After the security guard sprayed him with pepper spray, the police came and he was taken to the hospital. He came back to Villa Meri the next day.”

The minor’s sister is believed to have slept at the bus station since she had too little money to go to a hotel.

The minor had tried to speak with the manager of the camp, Päivi Nikkola, for quite a while, according to the asylum seeker.

“She always tells him that she doesn’t have any time to talk to him,” the person said.

Are the stricter rules at Villa Meri due to the suspected rape case of an adolescent that took place in October or just arbitrary bullying by the staff?

The minor who was pepper-sprayed was taken to the hospital for treatment. He returned to the camp the following day.

Continue reading “UPDATE: Minor asylum seeker at the Villa Meri reception center sent to hospital after getting pepper-sprayed by security guard”

In choosing a Finnish political party to vote for, you must ask which is the least racist

Posted on December 1, 2016 by Migrant Tales

Finland is gearing up for municipal elections on April 9, 2017.

If you are a non-white Finn and a minority, finding that right party and political fit can be quite a difficult task. Parties like the Left Alliance, Greens and Swedish People’s Party are pretty favorable to cultural diversity while others like the Perussuomalaiset (PS)* are the most hostile to it.

Even if migrants can vote in municipal elections, well under 20% do so. Source: Helsingin Sanomat.

All the rest, like the Social Democrats, Center Party, National Coalition Party and the Christian Democrats, are a big question mark. Their track record on challenging discrimination, bigotry, institutional racism and promoting cultural diversity isn’t convincing at all.

Continue reading “In choosing a Finnish political party to vote for, you must ask which is the least racist”

A sick Iraqi asylum seeker asks for mercy in a country that supposed to offer it

Posted on November 30, 2016 by Migrant Tales

As the Finnish Immigration Service (Migri) makes life difficult for asylum seekers in Finland with the approval of Prime Minister Juha Sipilä’s government, take a look at an Iraqi asylum seeker in the video below from the Pudasjärvi asylum reception center of northern Finland.

The man, Ali Mohammed Hussein, whose right hand is shaking as he speaks, asks for mercy as the police told him Tuesday at the asylum reception told him that he has seven days to leave and will no longer get any medicine, which the center paid. The man’s rollator will be confiscated as well by the reception center.

The action of the police is surprising considering that reception centers run by the Red Cross will not turn out anyone from their centers.

See video here.

The man’s rollator, which he needs to walk, will be taken from him as well by the reception center.

Hussein’s appeal against an earlier decision by Migri for asylum was rejected Tuesday by a district court.

He has suffered from a lot of pain in his stomach area for six months. Finally he was taken to a hospital whre he was operated three times. Each time, the doctors said that the operation didn’t succeed and they couldn’t pinpoint the problem.

Continue reading “A sick Iraqi asylum seeker asks for mercy in a country that supposed to offer it”

Here we go again with the anti-immigration rhetoric – it’s election time in Finland!

Posted on November 28, 2016 by Migrant Tales

Here we go again, folks, it’s election time in April 2017 in Finland. The populist-nationalist Perussuomalaiset (PS)* is picking up its hostile attacks against migrants, minorities and our ever-growing and proud culturally diverse community. Their allies in these attacks are their government partners, the Center Party and National Coalition Party (NCP).

You may rightly ask how it is possible for a government party like the PS to freely target our community with hostile and vengeful attacks? How is it possible that mainstream parties like the Center Party and NCP, which should know better, are near-silent to the PS’ anti-immigration rhetoric?

Even opposition voices like the Social Democrats, which use catchphrases like “we’re against racism,” it’s unclear how seriously the party wants to challenge structural racism and greater inclusion of migrants in the labor market.

You may ask how we have arrived at to this terrible juncture. The answer is simple: Too few people in this country care or believe in our Nordic rights that promote social inclusion and social equality.

Continue reading “Here we go again with the anti-immigration rhetoric – it’s election time in Finland!”

A small far-right Suomi ensin! demonstration again and the media cherishes a story

Posted on November 26, 2016 by Migrant Tales

Suomi ensin! (Finland first!) is a far-right group that goes to different places in Finland to stir up anti-immigration sentiment and hatred for migrants. Even if their demonstrations attract few people, they get a lot of attention in the national media. On Saturday afternoon their demonstration attracted 300* people to the eastern Helsinki neighborhood of Itäkeskus to listen to their xenophobic rhetoric.

One of the matters that the Suomi ensin! demonstrators complained about was too many foreigners at public swimming halls, according to Helsingin Sanomat. The demonstrators didn’t lose the chance to warn listeners about Islamization and how the government’s immigration policy is synonymous to treason.

Suomi ensin! calls itself a nationalistic movement, which is code for fascism.

Taking into account how this group pesters and antagonizes migrants in Finland, what would happen if a group of visible migrants went in front of the Perussuomalaiset* party’s headquarters and demonstrated in the same manner and make the same outrageous claims?

Ever wonder what kind of a media storm that would create? We doubt that the media would cover our demonstration in such a neutral manner as

We seriously doubt that the media would cover our demonstration in the same neutral news story manner as Helsingin Sanomat did with Suomi ensin today!

Today’s demonstration at Itäkeskus. Note the two skinheads on the right. Photo by Migrant Tales reporter.

Continue reading “A small far-right Suomi ensin! demonstration again and the media cherishes a story”

The disgraceful stand of the government towards undocumented migrants in Finland

Posted on November 24, 2016 by Migrant Tales

Winter is rapidly approaching and Interior Minister Paula Risikko isn’t too enthused about the idea that the Evangelical Lutheran Church wants to give housing to undocumented migrants, according to YLE.

As everyone knows, the rapid rise of undocumented migrants in Finland is the government’s own doing since it voted in spring to scrap granting residence permits on humanitarian grounds.

One of the direct impacts of the new law was that undocumented migrants in Finland would surge from a few hundred to thousands, according to various estimates.

One of the surprising matters about the whole issue is that it is purely political and originates in an anti-immigration party called the Perussuomalaiset (PS)*, which shares power in government with the Center Party and National Coalition Party (NCP).

It is a good matter that the Evangelical Lutheran Church has not been swayed by the government’s anti-immigration populist rhetoric and taken a stand against leaving undocumented migrants to their own fates as permanent secretary of the interior ministry, Päivi Nerg, recently suggested.

Nerg was quoted as saying in Jyväskylä-based Keskisuomalainen that no emergency accommodation should be given to these migrants because “it would send the wrong message.”

What, Nerg, is the “right message?” Let these people freeze and die outdoors?

Comments like the above, and many others, show us that we should not give the government and politicians the benefit of the doubt when it comes to immigration policy and handling undocumented migrants since most of them are driven by suspicion and opportunism against cultural diversity.

Disagree?

What did the youth leader of the PS, Sebastian Tynkyynen, suggest what should be done to these “migrants who stay illegally?” He stated that they should be interned in closely guarded camps in the forest, where they’d live in tents apparently in subzero temperatures.

Tynkkynen belongs to the PS, which is in government, but nobody in his xenophobic party never mind in the Center Party and NCP have any objections to what he said.

Read the full story (in Finnish) here.

Even if the PS is the last party that doesn’t have a clue how to treat migrants in Finland fairly because they are driven by bigotry, anti-cultural diversity, and racism, it is disappointing to note the silence coming from the government in the face of this rhetoric.

Continue reading “The disgraceful stand of the government towards undocumented migrants in Finland”

How a well-managed asylum reception center should be run

Posted on November 22, 2016 by Migrant Tales

We have written a lot about poorly managed reception centers in Finland since January. We, therefore, thought it would be a good opportunity to pull together our expertise and offer some best practices on how a well-managed reception center is run.

A poorly run center is the reverse of a well-run one. It boils down to poor management piled with racist and ethnocentric behavior by the staff.

Instead of serving and alleviating the suffering of the asylum seekers, you rub salt into their wounds.

Migrant Tales will publish more best practices by two experts in the field, Mikko T. Heminen and Wael Cheblak.

Source: Mikko T. Helminen and Wael Cheblak.

Finland faces a challenge with the rise of undocumented immigrants

Posted on November 20, 2016 by Migrant Tales

Finnish society will remain divided on immigration. It is an issue that transcends the traditional left-right paradigm that keeps erupting. Should undocumented immigrants become documented? If so which ones?As a group and at the risk of causing a fuss, should they be offered preferential treatment? Or should they be encouraged with financial incentives to return back to their home countries or forced to leave?

It’s clear that the present state of Finland’s immigration policy is in disarray with our asylum policy being even in worse shape. Both are cynical and costly policies out of step with other countries’ asylum policies and work against the interests of world refugees.

Since 2016, Finland’s immigration policy was designed to satisfy the special interests of immigration lawyers, private medical companies, private housing companies and other special-interest groups. Sharks in Finland are sucking taxpayers’ money at the cost of non-profit organizations, which have a smaller role. This is clear when looking at the Finnish Immigration Service’s (Migri) decision to close down asylum centers. Private companies are prevailing over non-profit ones.

A number of stories have been published by Migrant Tales concerning special interests that profit from the refugee situation.

We are now going to face a new problem: undocumented immigrants. Where are these asylum seekers going to go after they’re kicked out of the asylum reception centers that Migri decided to close? Where will these asylum seekers end up in and in which shark’s belly?

Continue reading “Finland faces a challenge with the rise of undocumented immigrants”

Iraqi asylum seeker in Finland: A journey that began in a tormented land

Posted on November 20, 2016 by Migrant Tales

Migrant Tales is very happy to receive mail from readers. Below is a story about an Iraqi asylum seeker that lives in Finland. These types of stories are important because they offer a human face to asylum seekers and their lives.

Here is an Iraqi asylum seeker’s story that began in a tormented land:

When Iraq collapsed after the fall of Saddam Hussein’s government in 2003, I was a boy of nine living in the city of Babil, which is located in central Iraq. When the US invaded my country, people were happy with Hussein’s downfall. They thought the US will bring freedom and democracy to our country. Unfortunately, it was only a dream…

The author is a young man like many who came to Finland in 2015.

At the age of nine, I was only a child with a simple dream to become an elementary school teacher. I loved to play basketball and I used to practice a lot at the local sports club. I felt that when the US took over my country, all my dreams would come true one day. I thought that I’d play on the Iraqi national basketball team and represent my country at international competitions. I thought that Iraq will be a safe country to live in with freedom. Unfortunately, all I have witnessed is death and killings every day and everywhere.

Continue reading “Iraqi asylum seeker in Finland: A journey that began in a tormented land”