refugees Archives - Page 2 of 7

My name is Raghad Mchawh and I’m from Syria

Posted on March 22, 2018 by Migrant Tales

Migrant Tales insight: I met Raghad Mchawh last year in Mikkeli. Her goal is to be a journalist. We know that such a journey is a long one but we have to take the first step.

We are honored that that first step is with Migrant Tales.

We hope to see many of her stories in this blog community and wish her luck in her new life in Finland.

Raghad Mchawh

My name is raghad, I’m from Syria. I’m 18 years old and I’m 10 years older than the war that rages in my country.

My dreams are also bigger than this war. The war didn’t kill my dream of becoming a journalist.

I had dreamed before to go to Turkey, to finish high school there, I have achieved my dream.

A young woman like me who has a passion for learning, with her power will overcome the obstacles that war creates.

Also I’ve dreamed of entering the best universities to receive a good education. I did not expect these universities would be in Finland.

Continue reading “My name is Raghad Mchawh and I’m from Syria”

The story of two asylum seekers in Finland: Arezo’s and Saboora’s three drawings

Posted on November 20, 2017 by Migrant Tales

Two women, a young mother of two children, and of a teenage girl who traveled with her family to Finland in 2015. Both have something in common even if they are from different countries: Both are refugees who still don’t know if they will get asylum in Finland. Two years have gone by since their long and dangerous journey started to Finland.

The first drawing is by Arezo*, who came to Finland from the Afghan city of Ghazni, located in southeastern part of the country.

“The trip to Finland took about a month,” she said. “It started from Afghanistan, and then we went with my husband and two children, who were then four- and two-years-old, we went to Pakistan, Iran, Turkey, Greece, Macedonia, Serbia, Croatia, Slovenia, Austria, Germany, Denmark, Sweden and finally Tornio, Finland.”

Arezo said that the journey was arduous and that she was especially afraid for her family when they boarded a boat that took them from Turkey to Greece.

“The journey was long and difficult,” she continued. “We came with a lot of hope, but now there hangs a big question mark if we will get asylum in Finland.”

Arezo’s drawing shows a boat sailing from Turkey to Greece with the words in Finnish: “The journey was challenging. Please stop deportations [of asylum seekers].

The Iraqi teenager, whom we will call Saboora*, is 18 years old and likes to draw. In the first drawing, she said that the journey from Turkey to Greece was fast and took 45 minutes.

Continue reading “The story of two asylum seekers in Finland: Arezo’s and Saboora’s three drawings”

DH’s Finnish fiancée speaks about his detention and possible deportation to Iraq: “This is so nerve-racking and unfair!”

Posted on January 25, 2017 by Migrant Tales

The Supermen

DH was detained on Sunday by the police in Pori and his fiancée, who is eight weeks pregnant, claims that the police set up a trap for her partner.

“We asked the police on the phone if they could read the decision [by the district court],” she said. “They said we had to go to the police station to get the answer. When we went there, they detained DH.”

According to DH’s fiancée, the second rejection for asylum was received so late that there was no time to appeal the decision to the supreme district court.

DH’s fiancée is a graphic artist. This painting by her is called “Waiting for you.”

“The police in Pori treated DH and my family in a very rude and racist manner,” she said. “His rights were breached. He was forced to undress and not allowed to make any phone calls or take visits [while in Pori].”

Continue reading “DH’s Finnish fiancée speaks about his detention and possible deportation to Iraq: “This is so nerve-racking and unfair!””

A sick Iraqi asylum seeker asks for mercy in a country that supposed to offer it

Posted on November 30, 2016 by Migrant Tales

As the Finnish Immigration Service (Migri) makes life difficult for asylum seekers in Finland with the approval of Prime Minister Juha Sipilä’s government, take a look at an Iraqi asylum seeker in the video below from the Pudasjärvi asylum reception center of northern Finland.

The man, Ali Mohammed Hussein, whose right hand is shaking as he speaks, asks for mercy as the police told him Tuesday at the asylum reception told him that he has seven days to leave and will no longer get any medicine, which the center paid. The man’s rollator will be confiscated as well by the reception center.

The action of the police is surprising considering that reception centers run by the Red Cross will not turn out anyone from their centers.

See video here.

The man’s rollator, which he needs to walk, will be taken from him as well by the reception center.

Hussein’s appeal against an earlier decision by Migri for asylum was rejected Tuesday by a district court.

He has suffered from a lot of pain in his stomach area for six months. Finally he was taken to a hospital whre he was operated three times. Each time, the doctors said that the operation didn’t succeed and they couldn’t pinpoint the problem.

Continue reading “A sick Iraqi asylum seeker asks for mercy in a country that supposed to offer it”

Iraqi asylum seeker in Finland: A journey that began in a tormented land

Posted on November 20, 2016 by Migrant Tales

Migrant Tales is very happy to receive mail from readers. Below is a story about an Iraqi asylum seeker that lives in Finland. These types of stories are important because they offer a human face to asylum seekers and their lives.

Here is an Iraqi asylum seeker’s story that began in a tormented land:

When Iraq collapsed after the fall of Saddam Hussein’s government in 2003, I was a boy of nine living in the city of Babil, which is located in central Iraq. When the US invaded my country, people were happy with Hussein’s downfall. They thought the US will bring freedom and democracy to our country. Unfortunately, it was only a dream…

The author is a young man like many who came to Finland in 2015.

At the age of nine, I was only a child with a simple dream to become an elementary school teacher. I loved to play basketball and I used to practice a lot at the local sports club. I felt that when the US took over my country, all my dreams would come true one day. I thought that I’d play on the Iraqi national basketball team and represent my country at international competitions. I thought that Iraq will be a safe country to live in with freedom. Unfortunately, all I have witnessed is death and killings every day and everywhere.

Continue reading “Iraqi asylum seeker in Finland: A journey that began in a tormented land”

Are asylum seekers escaping war now the target of arson attacks in Finland?

Posted on December 1, 2015 by Migrant Tales

A two-storey building which was supposed to house asylum seekers next week in Niinisalo may have been the target of an arson attack, according to tabloid Iltalehti. We hope that this isn’t the case. The last thing that asylum seekers escaping war should face in Finland are arson attacks.

Let’s not jump to rapid conclusions yet until we have the official report from the authorities.

In Finland there have been a number of failed arson attempts targeting refugee asylum centers in cities like Ylivieska, Lammi and Kouvola, which have been reported by the media.

Some ten suspected rape cases committed by asylum seekers have been reported by the media. Such cases have added petrol to the xenophobic narrative that we see spreading freely and too often in social media and in the national media.

Read full story here.

UPDATE: Finnish asylum center in Kempele is intimidated by local residents and moves to an undisclosed location

Posted on November 28, 2015 by Migrant Tales

It is shameful that an asylum reception center in Kempele, where an alleged rape of a minor took place on Monday by a suspected 17-year-old asylum seeker, has caved in to pressure. Kempele is the hometown of Prime Minister Juha Sipilä, who offered in September his home to asylum seekers.

According to Oulu-based daily Kaleva, the Oulun Diakonissalaitoksen Säätiö (ODL), which runs the asylum reception center for minors in Kempele, said in a statement that since Tuesday the area round the center “has been restless.” Stones and firecrackers have been thrown at the building with people have entered the premises without permission.

Why hasn’t the police in Kempele offered protection to the residents and staff of the asylum reception center?

Citing the Oulu police service, the asylum reception center has now moved to an undisclosed location, according to YLE News.

On Saturday some 200 demonstrators protested against the asylum center and demanded that Finns only have a right to live in Finland and that the country’s borders should be immediately closed. See the video of the demonstration below.

Read full story and watch video of demonstration here.

Continue reading “UPDATE: Finnish asylum center in Kempele is intimidated by local residents and moves to an undisclosed location”

The most outrageous picture I’ve seen of a racist in Finland

Posted on September 25, 2015 by Migrant Tales

A picture that appeared with a story on YLE left me with speechless. The arrival of a few thousand refugees to Finland has brought out the worst in some Finns, like in the picture below that shows a man in Ku Klux Klan garb and a Finnish flag protesting the establishment of a refugee center in Lahti.

The fact that the person dressed like a Ku Klux Klan clansman is another example of how racism is learned.

The picture below is by far the most outrageous I have seen to date of a racist protestor.

Thank you Perussuomalaiset* from bringing out the dark side of Finland!

The Ku Klux Klan is getting a foothold in Finland. The picture was taken outside a newly opened refugee center in the city of Lahti, located about 100km north of Helsinki.

* The Finnish name for the Finns Party is the Perussuomalaiset (PS). The English names of the party adopted by the PS, like True Finns or Finns Party, promote in our opinion nativist nationalism and xenophobia. We therefore prefer to use the Finnish name of the party on our postings.

Facebook: Finland’s abstension and pitiful explanation why

Posted on September 23, 2015 by Migrant Tales

Finland’s ambassador to Switzerland, Jari Luoto, isn’t too happy about Finland’s abstention on Tuesday when interior ministers met and decided to distribute 120,000 refugees.

The reason why Finland was the only country to abstain, apart from Hungary, Slovakia, Czech Republic and Poland that voted against, is because we have a populist anti-immigration party in government.

Perussuomalaiset (PS)* foreign minister, Timo Soini, has done a lot of harm to Finland’s image and its relations with Sweden.

On Monday he blamed Sweden for helping asylum seekers to come to Finland. He said that its western neighbor will help terrorists and traffickers if Sweden continues to have such open borders.

No wonder people like Luoto are concerned.

* The Finnish name for the Finns Party is the Perussuomalaiset (PS). The English names of the party adopted by the PS, like True Finns or the Finns Party, promote in our opinion nativist nationalism and xenophobia. We therefore prefer to use the Finnish name of the party on our postings.

Facebook: REFUGEES WELCOME (TO FINLAND) ????

Posted on September 12, 2015 by Migrant Tales

There are some disturbing reports that have emerged in the media about how some asylum seekers in Finland are getting a hostile reception. Trish Pääkkönen gives us a taste of what she went through when she tried to help a group of refugees at the the Helsinki and Espoo police stations.

She writes:

Fast forward: Espoo Police Station

Upon arrival, there were not any refugees waiting to be processed. Instead of immediately taking them, I was asked to follow a large group of police officers and staff to a room behind a locked barrier.

I was then grilled about how “did I know these people?”, ” why would I help strangers?” , ” did I help transport them into Finland? “……I told them I could not turn a blind eye to people in need and asked if I had broken any Finnish laws by showing them where to register as refugees and get help.

Continue reading “Facebook: REFUGEES WELCOME (TO FINLAND) ????”