Deportation is one of the cruelest matters about migration. Another deportation ruling hangs over an Iraqi family of five who has lived in Finland for ten years. Tragic is the fate of the children, aged 16, 14 and 7 years, who don’t read and write in Arabic and remember their parents’ former home country through…
Tag: Iraq
Migrant Tales Podcast: Shirlene Green Newball chats with poet Muhaned Durubi about his latest work, Rusty Sketches Book
Muhaned Durubi. is an Iraqi refugee who finds meaning and peace in poetry. His latest book, Rusty Sketches Book, attempts to look at his otherness and being exiled. Correction: The poet’s correct first name is Muhaned, not Muhamed.
Iraqi asylum seeker family in Kemi is told that they will not get anymore help from the city after Monday
An Iraqi family of two children aged 6 and 5, went to the Kemi social welfare office today to seek help since the family was forced to leave the hotel they were staying at today. According to the father of the family, the social worker told him angrily that he will not get any more…
Ali’s journey: Getting married in Turkey and the long wait. Will he get a visa to Finland?
On 10.10.2018, Ali,* 22, and his Finnish wife, 19, spent one of the most memorable days of their lives when they got married in Ankara. Present at the ceremony were two witnesses, the wife’s sister and a friend of Ali’s. Marriages in Turkey take place at the Turkish Marriage Offices. “Everything went smoothly and rapidly,” said…
Harith Mana’thar Badr Alsilmawi: Asylum seeker sent from Finland killed in “safe” Iraq
For how long will the Finnish Immigration Service (Migri) with the backing of Prime Minister Juha Sipilä’s government continue to maintain that Iraq is a “safe” country to deport asylum seekers? The latest victim of this flawed policy is 33-year-old Harith Mana’thar Badr Alsilmawi, who sought asylum in 2015 and died on Wednesday in Basra. …
Does Ibrahim’s claim about Hepatitis B expose white fragility?
Migrant Tales published a story about Ibrahim’s* “voluntary” return to Iraq after coming to Finland in October 2015. While there were many that felt for Ibrahim’s case, some were more preoccupied with what he alleged, or that he contracted Hepatitis B when going to a Finnish dentist. In journalism, you run up against a lot…
Ibrahim of Iraq: “Finland is a never-ending long dark tunnel without light”
Do you remember the patient asylum seeker called Ibrahim*, who applied to hundreds of jobs in Finland and who finally got a job at Posti to deliver newspapers at homes? Well, Ibrahim is so fed up with Finland that he decided to move back to Iraq.
Rafal Rada Mousa: A good ending to a long uncertain journey from Iraq to Finland
Rafal Raad Mousa, 18, whose former pseudonym on Migrant Tales was Saboora,* is a very happy young woman together with her family. After a three-year wait in Finland, Rafal and her family of two brothers, sister, and mother were granted a residence permit.
I am Ali: The waiting
Migrant Tales insight: Katie Bell wrote us an email a while back and asked if she could publish a story about an Iraqi asylum seeker called Ali, who spoke on condition of anonymity. She writes in an email: “After interviewing him for more details and exactly what he wants to tell, I will compose a…
Ali’s journey (June 13, 2018): The long journey back. Baghdad feels like a sauna
It’s been 25 days since Ali,* 22, who speaks on condition of anonymity, “voluntarily” returned to Iraq from Finland. Sometimes the journey back to where you were once from is longer than the one that took you to foreign lands. The first journey was fueled by hope and the other one back to your homeland with question marks and doubts.