Tag: refugees

The inhumane treatment of asylum seekers at the Greek-Turkish border may reveal what may happen at the Russian-Finnish border

Posted on by Migrant Tales

Europe is good at hiding its very big dirty secrets. German news magazine Der Spiegel revealed the inhuman treatment of refugees at European borders by publishing a report on Frontex by the European anti-fraud office OLAF. And that’s not all: The Guardian reports that 92 naked refugees were rescued at the Greek-Turkish border.

Read the full story here.

Writes Der Spiegel: “The OLAF report led to [former Frontex head Fabrice] Leggeri’s resignation in spring 2022. But what the investigators have uncovered goes far beyond questions of individual liability. Even though it wasn’t the main focus of the investigation, the report relentlessly exposes how Greek border guards in the Aegean Sea abandon refugees at sea on inflatable life rafts to prevent them from exercising their right to apply for asylum.”

Tens of thousands of refugees attempting to cross the Mediterranean Sea have perished. The silence resembles the mass killings of Jews, Roma, and other state enemies in concentration camps. Even in my country of birth, Argentina, people elected not to see the abduction, torture, and murder of people by the military dictatorship.

“The question in the coming years will be whether taxpayer money will continue to be used to help break the law at the EU’s borders – or whether Frontex will be forced to comply with European law,” writes Der Spiegel. 

We saw in November the terrible treatment of Middle East refugees on the Belarus-Polish and Lithuanian border, where people and children died of hyperthermia.

Continue reading “The inhumane treatment of asylum seekers at the Greek-Turkish border may reveal what may happen at the Russian-Finnish border”

European Network on Religion & Belief: Babah Tarawally and the importance of hope and your narrative

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I had the opportunity to attend on 6 October the European Network on Religion & Belief’s (ENORB)* General Assembly, when writer and columnist Babah Tarawally gave an inspirational talk on hope and Ubuntu, an African philosophy that draws strength communally. 

As many migrants and minorities readily learn, hope is the fuel that keeps one from moving forward in one’s new homeland; it also gives you strength to pick yourself up after failing.

Tarawally lives in the Netherlands and writes about Otherness as a writer and columnist. He is a source for migrants and others who want to succeed in their new homeland and be treated equally, not as victims.

“They called me a refugee [in the beginning], and putting [that label] on me all the time is very frustrating for me because it made me feel in a space as someone who is a victim all the time,” he said. “I don’t want to be seen as a victim but as an expert who is equal [to everyone].”

Babah Tarawally’s talk at ENORB’s GA.

Tarawally said that he empowers migrants in the Netherlands by asking them to see themselves in a picture that has a gold frame.

Continue reading “European Network on Religion & Belief: Babah Tarawally and the importance of hope and your narrative”

How will we treat Ukrainian refugees in Finland?

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The interior ministry estimates “tens of thousands” Ukrainians moving to Finland as a result of the war in that country, according to  Yle News. There are about 7,000 Ukrainians in Finland, but Anna Rundgren, a ministry of interior senior specialist, believes that the actual figure is several times higher.

In 2015, the country saw a record influx of people coming here. Thirty-two thousand four hundred seventy-six asylum seekers, mainly from Iraq (20,485) and Afghanistan (5,214), came to Finland in that historic year. The country’s first wave of refugees was in 1921 when some 6,500 Russians from Kronstadt island in the Gulf of Finland fled the Bolsheviks.

Any sensible person should understand that the Ukrainian newcomers are an important human asset to the country. If we want to make Finland their new home, we must also treat them with respect and be vigilant so they will not fall prey to human trafficking and exploitation.

Read the full story here.

The treatment that some Iraqis, Afghans, and other non-EU asylum seekers received in Finland from 2015 was shameful in some cases. In May 2016, Migrant Tales, Rovaniemi-based daily Lapin Kansa, and the asylum seekers of the Kolari asylum reception center forced the Red Cross to fire the deputy manager of the camp Jari Sillantie.

Continue reading “How will we treat Ukrainian refugees in Finland?”

A racist explanation by the chair of parliament’s foreign affairs committee of Finland why Ukrainian refugees are better than other ones

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Despite all the objections to racism and Islamophobia in Finland, the silence and sub-rosa nods why such social ills continue to take root in the country. The chair of parliament’s foreign affairs committee, Jussi Halla-aho of the far-right Perussuomalaiset (PS)*, explained why Europe should open its arms to Ukrainians and shut the door on refugees from regions like the Middle East.

In light of these racist and preposterous explanations by a high-ranking MP, their context is the hope that such statements will boost the PS’ slump in opinion polls.

What is a better place to do it than from the foreign affairs committee by a politician who not only built his political career on spreading racism but was convicted in 2012 for ethnic agitation and breaching the sanctity of religion?

Source: Ville Ranta/Iltalehti

Below are the head of parliament’s foreign affairs committee reasoning why Ukrainian refugees are better than others from regions like the Middle East and Africa on a Facebook post:

  • “Women and children are fleeing Ukraine. Those very children that are [fleeing] hug teddy bears in their arms, not those who claim they are 17 years old with built bodies. At the same time, when Ukrainian women and children flee the bombing, their husbands remain [in the country] to defend their homeland. Tens of thousands of Ukrainian men abroad return to fight against the [Russian] aggressor. The [Ukrainian refugee crisis] offers an average person what a refugee is and the [original] purpose of international refugee agreements.
  • Ukrainian refugees are grateful for having a roof over their heads. Iraqis state that the porridge is bad and why asylum reception centers are located so far from the city.
  • Many people already have [direct] experiences and perceptions of Ukrainians. You can see them at construction sites and farms. You can again see Iraqis…Everyone can decide where they’ve seen them.
  • Ukraine is a European refugee crisis. Naturally, they flee to the closest regions of Europe. [Ukrainian] refugees don’t demand that they go to the United States or Japan…”

Exposing white Finnish privilege #83: War doesn’t give a hoot if you are white or black

Posted on by Migrant Tales

The war in Ukraine is like a sinister brew boiling over death, destruction, tragedy, hatred, and xenophobia.

Apart from the shock and horror, our double standards and jingoism stand out as a stark reminder that we have done little to challenge the very social ills that caused the deaths of tens of millions of people in World War 2.

I’m talking about accomplices like the Holocaust and Stalin’s purges. And to our silence and inaction.

White Finnish privilege #82

“Rather than being a movement to turn on each other, this refugee crisis should be a reminder that ‘refugee’ is not synonymous for ‘brown person.’ Anyone could become a refugee. It’s a thing that happens to you, it’s not who you are.”

Trevor Noah

Will we learn anything from this war?

Will the tears of the dead and the living awaken us from what Henry Miller called the air-conditioned nightmare?

We are all hardcore nationalism junkies.

Detoxification now.

See also:

Migrant Tales Literary: Fatima

Posted on by Migrant Tales

Leo Honka

Who is Fatima? Who is the person wishing us from the Joutseno immigration removal center a kind, “Good night. Loved ones.”

Fatima is only a name. It houses no human because it is only a name written on paper by a plane dropping bombs, a tank shelling civilians, and a woman hoping for better days.

Could it be Fatima who is wishing us good night as floodlights expose the state of siege?

Maybe, but it doesn’t matter.

Bombs drop from the sky…
…and from the ground.
Continue reading “Migrant Tales Literary: Fatima”

PS’ Mika Niikko: Muslims should be prohibited from having a family

Posted on by Migrant Tales

Perussuomalaiset MP and chair of the foreign affairs committee, Mika Niikko, said in Helsingin Sanomat that he’d only want to give asylum to Afghan women and girls. Niikko’s and the PS’ xenophobic views of asylum seekers are exposed. 

“I am not heartless to not help women and children who seek to come and seek shelter from a dreadful government in the EU region,” he was quoted as saying in Helsingin Sanomat.

It should not surprise us that Niikko, like his party, constantly questions and undermines asylum seekers. As chair of the foreign affairs committee, he should know that asylum seekers are not accepted according to their sex.

Moreover, doesn’t Niikko think that Afghans have families and consider them an important factor like in all cultures?

Think what it’s like to live in a broken family, or be a single mother, fleeing war.

The chair of the foreign affairs committee is ignorant of history. Over 1.2 million Finns emigrated during 1860-1999. When they settled in the United States, they first brought their wife and children, then their relatives and even their friends.

Niikko’s comments only expose how the PS fuel and maintain Finland’s hostile environment against migrants and minorities.

WARNING RACIST CONTENT: Helsingin Sanomat survey exposes the DNA of Finland’s racism

Posted on by Migrant Tales

THIS STORY HAS BEEN UPDATED

Helsingin Sanomat’s survey published on Monday after another questionable story on “model immigrants” was widely criticized on social media as outright racist. Even so, I would like to thank Finland’s largest daily for exposing the DNA of Finland’s racism and the continued low caliber and racism of its journalism on topics related to asylum seekers and migrants. 

The latest survey, the daily does not cite any sociologists or other experts and gives a clear picture of Finland’s racism without the daily taking any stand on the issue. Instead, Helsingin Sanomat cites as an “expert source” Perussuomalaiset (PS)* chairperson, Jussi Halla-aho, convicted of ethnic agitation and breaching the sanctity of religion in 2012.

One of these sources that were not cited is Gavan Titley, a University of Helsinki docent in media and communications.

“These poll questions are so badly constructed they would fail a first-year research methods module,” he said. “Given that they are constructed by a professional polling company, and a national newspaper, we can only assume that this bad method is deliberate. In other words, HS has decided to gain publicity, hits and clicks by shit-stirring about ‘migrants’ in an already tense situation. Debating this strategy, of course, only amplifies it – the only response is to cancel your subscription and tweet to them why you are doing so. There has always got to be some cost for this crap, no matter how minimal.”

As long as the media continues to see Halla-aho as an “expert” on migration issues, the ongoing debate will regress into a swamp of hearsay.

Here are some of the questions the survey asks:

  • Do you believe that the main factors for sexual assault crimes hinges on the migrants culture and religion? 65% answered in the affirmative;
  •  Politicians have done enough to awaken Finns to the news about the sexual assault cases (in Oulu by asylum seekers). The far-right PS were the most critical and believed that politicians had not done enough to raise awareness;
  • The best way to thwart sexual assault crimes is to tighten laws (26%); educate foreigners on Finnish laws and values (19%); lower the number of residence permits granted on humanitarian grounds (10%); and lower migration in general to Finland (10%).

Continue reading “WARNING RACIST CONTENT: Helsingin Sanomat survey exposes the DNA of Finland’s racism”

An active citizen needs to learn at school about two crucial matters: empathy and social activism

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If we look at history and today’s Europe and globally, it becomes clear that most people who went to school that too many never learned about empathy and social activism. A positive example of the latter is Elin Ersson, who refused to take a seat on a flight before they removed an Afghanistan deported asylum seeker off the plane. 

Veronika Honkasalo, a Left Alliance Helsinki city councilperson, was recently quoted as saying in Kansan Uutiset that in light of the low turnout of demonstrators during the Trump-Putin summit, it would be important for schools to teach their pupils how to exercise their civic rights by becoming active citizens.

In countries like Russia and others where human rights abuses are the norm, their citizens are not left with many choices if they want to express their opinions.

In Argentina, where I was born, living under a dictatorship supported by the United States, gave you three choices in the face of social unrest: stay silent, emigrate or join a guerrilla movement and start killing people.

While all three choices are bad, the latter about killing people for a cause raises a lot of ethical and moral questions. Can you kill another human being and live with such a deed for the rest of your life?

My heroes aren’t Rambo or the Terminator and other creations of the Hollywood culture industry. For me, social activist that changed history were people like Rosa Parks, Martin Luther King Jr., Malcolm X, Sophie Scholl of the White Rose Movement, Mahatma Gandhi, Nelson Mandela, James Baldwin, Rodolfo Walsh, Alvar Nuñez Cabeza de Vaca and many, many others.

All of these latter examples show us that a person can challenge a system that is oppressive and appears invincible.

 

Migrant Tales will begin to highlight more stories about social activism. One way of doing this is by sharing stories of struggles and social activism.

We hope to hear and publish your story.