Immigration policy Archives - Page 6 of 10

A week in an asylum seeker’s life in Finland: legal limbo and deportation

Posted on February 8, 2017 by Migrant Tales

From good news like with the release of Hayder Al-Hatemi on February 1 this week is characterized by extending the detention of an asylum seeker and two deportations.

Let’s start off with DH, who was detained in Pori on January 22. His fiancée wrote a letter asking without any luck Prime Minister Juha Sipilä to free her fiancé from detention. She wrote:

My fiancé was torn from life without any warning when he was detained. The door shut coldly in front of me and there were no chances even to say goodbye at the first place he was detained.

DH was transferred on January 26 from Helsinki’s Metsälä immigration removal center to Lappeenranta. Over the weekend, DH and her parents made a long six-hour trip from Pori to Lappeenranta by car to visit her fiancé on Sunday between 9am and noon.

DH and her fiancée posing for a selfie from detention center in Lappeenranta on Sunday.

DH’s fiancée was hopeful that he’d be released after a judge heard her on Tuesday.

“They are not going to release him because the police fear he’ll go into hiding,” she said by phone, who didn’t know what was the next legal challenge her fiancé faces.

Deportation #1

Kerstin Ögård, who wrote an inspiring post on Migrant Tales last week, took the case of twenty-year-old Aziz Khalaf, who was deported Tuesday noon to Iraq.

The young Iraqi asylum seeker writes:

“I came to Finland because I had read that it is a country that has freedom and humanity…Just please focus on this word ‘humanity,’ what does this word mean to you? Please let me stay here for the sake of humanity if nothing else.”

Continue reading “A week in an asylum seeker’s life in Finland: legal limbo and deportation”

Finnish Police detain fifth Iraqi asylum seeker in over two weeks they plan to deport

Posted on January 22, 2017 by Migrant Tales

We reported Saturday that an Iraqi asylum seeker in Oulu called MS was detained by the police on Friday.

Migrant Tales was contacted about the detention the following day. The detained man is an Iraqi and he has made a video stating the following:

This video cannot be accessed on this site. The one above is from Jan.

“My name is MS and I have been living in Oulu for a year and a few months. I got the second rejection on my application for asylum. Two weeks ago I contacted the lawyer who lodged an appeal [to the supreme administrative court on the district court decision]. Yesterday [Friday] the police came and asked me to pack all my clothes and took me to a prison cell. I called the lawyer who asked me to please wait till Sunday when a judge will make a decision on whether I will be deported to Iraq or not.”

Migrant Tales will try to follow this story as closely as possible.

If you know of any asylum seeker that was detained by the police service and is going to be deported, please get in touch with us at [email protected].

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How Finland’s immigration and asylum policy turned from Dr. Jekyll to Mr. Hyde

Posted on January 19, 2017 by Migrant Tales

It’s clear that Finland’s immigration policy towards asylum seeker moves from one blunder to the next. Under Prime Minister Juha Sipilä’s government immigration policy has been inefficient, expensive and, most importantly, inhumane and against our Nordic values.

Where else could you read about a prime minister offering his home in September 2015 to asylum seekers and then making an about-turn in policy by turning these people into thousands of undocumented migrants? It is like a scene from the movie Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde.

This cartoon by Rabah Boussuira appeared in Strange Days, a book published in 1984 about Finland’s tough stand against migrants.

Populism is nothing more than offering simple answers to complex problems. This is why populist parties and politicians fail and let down their voters. They don’t have any sensible answers never mind a clue.

The Perussuomalaiset (PS)* party is an unfortunate example of how populism and fascism have today a foothold in Finnish politics. They also stand to suffer a stinging defeat in the municipal elections of April 9.

Continue reading “How Finland’s immigration and asylum policy turned from Dr. Jekyll to Mr. Hyde”

Undocumented migrants in Finland: Päivi Nerg lives in denial, politicians live in denial as do the media and most of the country, too

Posted on January 6, 2017 by Migrant Tales

Finnish immigration policy in general and asylum policy, in particular, is a good example of the decades-long suspicion that Finland’s political establishment has of outsiders. If some words could be used to describe the present state of things, it could be “not my problem” and “denial.”

That statement, not my issue, reveals a lot about ourselves as a society and our capacity to live with difference.

The ongoing debate in the media about undocumented migrants is a case in point. Few if any newspapers blame the ever-growing number of undocumented migrants on the politicians who voted in favor of doing away with in April of residence permits on humanitarian grounds.

By doing away with this option, parliament forced the number of undocumented migrants to rise from a few hundred to the thousands. In other words and in plain English, the politicians and government have created the ever-growing undocumented migrant problem in Finland.

We all know that populism means simple solutions to complex problems. The government, which comprises of the Center Party, National Coalition Party (NCP), and Perussuomalaiset (PS)*, believes in simple solutions to complex problems in areas like migration.

The vote to do away with residence permits on humanitarian grounds is a case in point. Lobbied by the PS, the Center Party and NCP voted – together with the Social Democrats and Christian Democrats in the opposition – to do away with such a clause.

Naively, irresponsibly, ignorantly and with a dose of self-deception, the government believed that by doing away with residence permits on humanitarian grounds would solve the problem. It did not solve any problem but worsened it. In the government style, the blame for their incompetence is blamed on the victim, or in this case the asylum seeker.

Thanks to too much complacency in the media that too many continue to have major blind-spot issues with immigration, migrants and asylum seekers, officials like Päivi Nerg can appear and say with a poker face that she “is concerned about the security risk that illegal [sic] immigrants pose,” according to a story by Helsinki Times.

Read the full story here.

Continue reading “Undocumented migrants in Finland: Päivi Nerg lives in denial, politicians live in denial as do the media and most of the country, too”

Migrant Tales (December 27, 2011): Immigration laws reveal what kind of society we are

Posted on December 27, 2016 by Migrant Tales

Migrant Tales insight: This opinion piece was published exactly five years ago. Check out what we wrote back then and how immigration law in Finland have tightened. If immigration laws reveal what kind of society we are, what do our immigration laws reveal about ourselves?

Last year, 32,476 asylum seekers came to Finland. While many of us received them with open arms, that welcome eventually turned into suspicion and a sinister wish that they’d leave our country as fast as possible.

The attitude of Prime Minister Juha Sipilä’s government, after he offered asylum seekers his home in September of last year, not only exposes hypocrisy but reveals moral cowardice in the face of a challenge.
________________________

Tell me what your immigration laws are and I will tell you what kind of society you live in. Show me how those laws defend minorities and encourage cultural diversity and I will show you hypocrisy.

There is a saying that a person’s true character is not exposed during good times but when there is great adversity.

The global financial meltdown of markets in September 2008 and the euro financial crisis today is testing our “good will” to breaking point.

Far-right, populist and even right-wing conservative groups in countries like the U.S. have succeeded in making racism sound fair, according to Colorlines.*

There are worse examples of how the spirit of the laws and that of deeds show how our societies are flirting and have succumbed in some cases to the ways of despotism.

A case in point is Sheriff Joe Arpaio of Maricopa County in Arizona, who got his wings clipped after the Obama Administration’s Department of Homeland Security stripped him of several federal tools for immigration enforcement, according to Police Patrol. *

Continue reading “Migrant Tales (December 27, 2011): Immigration laws reveal what kind of society we are”

The Finnish Red Cross must take action to correct the alleged abuses at the Laajakoski asylum reception center near Kotka

Posted on December 11, 2016 by Migrant Tales

Migrant Tales and Kymen Sanomat published on Saturday and Sunday stories about the problems and abuses that asylum seekers face at the Red Cross-run Laajakoski reception center. The fact that incompetence, poor management, and abuses of asylum seekers take place at the reception center near Kotka is unacceptable.

What is even more incredible is the Laajakoski reception center’s manager, Saija Makkonen, who won’t comment about the serious allegations.

We wonder if the abuse and mistreatment of asylum seekers at Laajakoski are “individual cases” or a worrying trend.

Are Deputy Manager Tiina Meisola telling asylum seekers to go back to where they came from and mocking a suicide attempt “individual cases?” What about a nurse, who allegedly told an asylum seeker that she didn’t care if she died in Finland or Iraq?

The long list of complaints by the asylum seekers reveals that the management has lost control of the situation and apparently wants to brush the serious problems of the reception center under the carpet.

Migrant Tales and Kymen Sanomat revealed the problems that asylum seekers face at the Laajakoski reception center.

Considering that we’ve written a lot of stories about the problems of only three asylum reception centers managed by the Red Cross and other ones run by private companies begs a question: Are these cases exceptions or a worrying trend?

Continue reading “The Finnish Red Cross must take action to correct the alleged abuses at the Laajakoski asylum reception center near Kotka”

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”

A naturalized Finn who returned to a “safe” country like Afghanistan and was killed last month

Posted on October 31, 2016 by Migrant Tales

The Finnish Immigration Service (Migri) announced in May that countries like Iraq, Afghanistan, and Somalia are “safe” to return refugees who get their asylum applications rejected. Migrant Tales documented two deaths and one shooting of Iraqi asylum seekers that returned recently to Iraq.

When asked about such cases, Migri tweets the following: “Good morning Marianne. Without confirmation we cannot comment on the fate of those [asylum seekers] that have been refused to stay [in Finland].”

We would like to introduce Reza Hasani, a naturalized Finn originally from Afghanistan, who got shot and killed on September 19, or seven days after he got married in the capital Kabul.

Continue reading “A naturalized Finn who returned to a “safe” country like Afghanistan and was killed last month”

The number of undocumented migrants in Finland will soar “by the thousands”

Posted on September 26, 2016 by Migrant Tales

In the face of a thousands of new undocumented migrants in Finland, permanent secretary of the interior ministry, Päivi Nerg, was quoted as saying Jyväskylä-based Keskisuomalainen that no emergency accommodation should be offered to these migrants because “it would send the wrong message.”

What kind of a message does Nerg want to send to the world about Finland when thousands of homeless undocumented migrants, which include the elderly and children, are forced to sleep on freezing streets or be victims of exploitation?

Does Finland have a plan?

Some estimates place the number of undocumented migrants in Finland at 300-400. Most of them are Roma from countries like Romania.

The government has estimated that 24% of all asylum seekers will get a positive decision this year.

Last year, 32,476 asylum seekers came to Finland. The government estimates that this year some 10,000 asylum seekers will arrive to the country.

If the permanent secretary wants to signal to the world that Finland is an unfriendly and inhumane country to asylum seeker that has little respect for human rights, Nerg will likely succeeded beyond her expectations.

The permanent secretary leaves these people’s fate to chance.

“Emergency accommodation gives them [asylum seekers] a totally wrong message,” she was quoted as saying. “I hope that our whole society messages to them that it’s much better if they find a way to go back home.”

Read the full story here.

Nerg’s statement has the same sour taste as the one in May by the Finnish Immigration Service, which alleged that countries like Iraq, Afghanistan and Somalia are safe to return asylum seekers.

In light of such assessments, the foreign ministry discourages Finns from traveling to such countries because it considers them unsafe.

How do you become an undocumented or irregular migrant in Finland?

Continue reading “The number of undocumented migrants in Finland will soar “by the thousands””

Police now investigate the death of a young Iraqi asylum seeker in Finland

Posted on September 21, 2016 by Migrant Tales

Migrant Tales reported Monday about the tragic death of a young Iraqi asylum seeker who allegedly took his life after his asylum request was turned down by the Finnish Immigration Service. While it’s been known since Sunday about the death of the asylum seeker, it is surprising how slowly the media and police operate.

A YLE News story reported Tuesday that “the police are investigating the death.”

Police service chief inspector, Teemu Kruskopf, said that the news about the young man’s death was received Monday morning while it was known to the Iraqi community in Finland Sunday.

“It came to our attention at 9.20 am on Monday,” Kruskopf was quoted as saying in YLE News. “There will be an inquiry into the death and an autopsy, but the details will be classified. So we will not be making any more public statements about this case.”

Read the full story here.

The name of the deceased asylum seeker is Mohammed M. A. and he has lived in Finland for a year.