National Coalition Party (NCP) Prime Minister Petteri Orpo’s coalition partner, the radical-right Perussuomalaiset (PS)*, is going all out to make life as miserable as possible for migrants, especially asylum seekers and undocumented migrants. PS Interior Minister Mari Rantanen has threatened to take “a radical shift” in asylum policy and undocumented migrants. In her opinion, if…
Tag: Iraqi asylum seekers
Adel Abidin: “Immigration Services” – an art exhibition about Iraqis in Finland
Migrant Tales insight: “Immigration Services” is an art exhibition that will debut in Reykjavík, Iceland, and aims to bring to light the suffering and challenges of Iraqi asylum seekers who came to Finland in 2015. It is encouraging that artists like Adel Abidin continue to show the injustices faced by Iraqi asylum seekers. Go to…
A picture that refuses to die and reveals Finland’s inhumane asylum policy where children are locked up in detention centers
The picture of the girl in Joutseno’s immigration removal center was taken by a detained Iraqi family in 2017. If there is a picture that represents the injustice of Finland’s heartless immigration “service” authorities, it is this picture of the girl gazing at her future from a barred window with barb wire. You can check…
Tampere offers shelter and food to Iraqi family after Red Cross intervenes
Migrant Tales wrote on Monday about an Iraqi family with two children aged 6 and 5 that were evicted from the Kemi asylum reception center and given five days room and board by the city. The family left Kemi and went to Tampere, where the city gave them room and board. The father was desperate…
An Iraqi family in Finland and their brave 13-year-old daughter
Asylum seekers and migrants commonly get in touch with Migrant Tales like a Turkmen Iraqi family below who feared being deported back to their former home country. Their daughter is 13 years old and she speaks at least five languages. Since she is the only one who can speak Finnish, she not only interprets language but the family’s anxiety and fear.
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…
Mohammed’s deportation from Finland to Iraq on May 29
There are many reasons why some consider the Finnish justice and asylum system inhumane towards asylum seekers. Amnesty International has cited factors like restrictions of the right to free legal representation and reduced appeal times in 2016 as factors that have undermined asylum seekers’ situation in Finland.
Speaking to two asylum seekers detained at the Joutseno immigration removal center
A twenty-four-year-old asylum seeker, which Finland has tried to deport twice and failed, has been locked up for about two months at the Joutseno immigration removal center. The question is for how long can the authorities keep a man locked up for simply refusing to be deported?
Asylum seeker in detention cell 208: “I’ll be released again – I hope I’ll never have to see this place again”
A supreme administrative court order today stopped Monday’s deportation of an Iraqi asylum seeker in detention cell 208 (detained last year in cell 406). It was in November when the twenty-one-year-old asylum seeker, after being held for 32 days, was released under the same circumstances. At 4:30 pm sharp a guard at the Joutseno* immigration…
Asylum seeker in detention cell 406: “I will be deported on Monday”
The asylum seeker in detention cell 406, who is a twenty-one-year-old Iraqi, said that he’d be deported on Monday, February 26 from Finland. “The same woman police officer who said she was going to fly with me to Iraq in October, said that I would be flown back on Monday,” he said by phone. “The…