Thanks to National Coalition Party (NCP) MP and chairperson of the constitutional committee, Heikki Vestman, Finland regressed to the days of the cold war, when human rights was seen as a negative matter because it jeopardized our relationship with the former Soviet Union. Vestman, who has been accused of throwing the rule of law and…
Tag: Human Rights
Thank you President Jimmy Carter (1924-2024)
Enrique Tessieri <[email protected]> May 1, 2017, 4:29 PM to [email protected] President Jimmy Carter, you don’t know me but I’d like to thank you from the bottom of my heart for giving me hope during one of my darkest hours when I was in Argentina during the dirty war (1976-83). At the time when you mentioned that human rights…
Crossing the Finnish-Russian border during difficult times – had pushbacks started in December 2023?
From 1 August 2023 to 29 January 2024 a total of 1,271 persons sought asylum at the Finnish-Russian border. Well over 90% of the refugees are from Muslim countries like Syria (491), Somalia (360), Yemen (120), and Iraq (57). The total amount does not include some 200 Russians in legal limbo awaiting an interview by…
Migrant Tales Literary: The fight against terrorism
Photo: Enrique Tessieri The late evening streets of Buenos Aires bleed silently and I should be asleep and hide until day but I can’t. In my room, the keys of my typewriter are razors to the touch makng a short trip to hell and back. The night is alost at a standstill, now searchlights crisscross…
‘Aleksanterinliitto ry’ petition to the European Parliament on the closing of the Finnish-Russian border
Migrant Tales insight: Without Aleksanterinliitto ry, the opinions of Finland’s Russian-speaking community would not be heard loud enough. According to Alexey Bulvatsev, the closing of the border has hurt families in Finland and Russia and made travel to Russia more difficult. And adds: “According to the petitioner, Finland is likely to be in breach of…
Finland’s and Estonia’s bullying of Russians
With no solution in sight to the end of the war in Ukraine, part of the collateral damage is the Russian-speaking community of Finland, by far the biggest language group outside of Finnish, Swedish, and Sami. Even before Russia invaded Ukraine, there was a lot of hatred and suspicion of Russians. Even if Finland signed…
Migrant Tales interviews an asylum seeker who was apprehended at the Evros River proving the deep corruption and violence at that border
THE STORY WAS UPDATED It is usually the rule rather than the exception that everywhere EU’s Frontex polices with local border guards the border, “European values” are thrown under the bus or underwater in most cases. For this reason, some fear that Finland’s pushback law will be just another example of the corruption, violations, and…
Finland should ask the EU to ditch Human Rights altogether. Why should we care less for refugees?
The depths of Finnish hypocrisy continue to find new records with President Alexander Stubb. Finland entered uncharted waters a week ago after the pushback law was passed, which compromised the country’s human rights, the Constitution, and international agreements. The president’s hubris and anti-Russian sentiment were exposed for everyone to witness when he said that the pushback law…
Human Rights in Finland should be our struggle’s clarion call
“To deny people their human rights is to challenge their very humanity.” Nelson Mandela The passage on Friday of the pushback law with the support of the Social Democrats, demonstrates that we have entered uncharted waters. We should not be naive to think that the shelving of human rights, undermining our constitution, and turning our…
12 July 2024 was Finland’s day of infamy for Human Rights and the rule of law
Finland’s controversial pushback law received in parliament the needed two-thirds majority to turn away people seeking asylum at the border. One hundred sixty-seven MPs voted for the law while 31 voted against it. Critics of the law argue that it conflicts with the Constitution, Human Rights, and international agreements signed by Finland with the United…