Finland’s Perussuomalaiset (PS)* Interior Minister Mari Rantanen is one of the government’s xenophobic “hotheads.” She, like PS Finance Minister Riikka Purra, will exploit and spread xenophobic soundbites to suit her party’s political agenda, which is nothing more than bashing brown and black migrants and refugees.
Even if she is supposed to watch out for our safety in Finland, she is near-constantly commenting about the situation in Sweden. In the tweet below she quotes Swedish Prime Minister Ulf Kristersson, who, like the National Coalition Party of Finland, decided to go to bed with a far-right party.
If only immigration “problems” could be as easy to solve as Rantanen makes us believe in the tweet below:
“Political naivety and ignorance led us to this point as well as irresponsible immigration policies and failed integration,” Rantanen quotes Swedish PM Kristersson. “Finland will avoid the Swedish way by tightening immigration and integration and increasing integration.”
Add to the latter a racist opinion piece by a tabloid Ilta-Sanomat and you have a one-two knock-out punch that blames migrants for the violence and most Sweden’s problems.
Matters will get worse on the migration front.
Even so, we must do everything possible to push back against racism in Finland and Europe.
The scandal that has rocked and come to public light about Avarn Security gets more incriminating by the day, revealing a culture of downplaying and coverup. Avarn Security Managing Director Niclas Sacklén’s initial reaction to Helsingin Sanomat was disbelief.
According to the daily, Sacklén considered the allegations “unbelievable.” Moreover, he initially would not confirm if the company, which has an annual turnover of 100 million euros, terminated the employment of the suspected security guards.
Sacklén has denied in repeated interviews with Helsingin Sanomat that the company as zero tolerance for violence by security guards. Now he admits that the company has failed in this task.
Sacklén’s assurances are nothing more than a coverup. A security company that does not provide security but terrorizes people is highly problematic. The problem reveals a wider problem in Finnish society, which lacks the will to regulate itself. Sacklén should resign from his job.
Avarn Security Managing Director Niclas Sacklén’s said upon seeing the video was “truly terribly,” according to Helsingin Sanomat, which has uncovered several cases of assault like the one above. The video is of another incident that does not involve the suspects held in custody by the police. What is worrying and suggests that the violence by Avarn Security guards is more widespread and a bigger problem than Sacklén admits. Continue reading “Avarn Security Managing Director Niclas Sacklén should step down”
Former Perussuomalaiset (PS) MP Ano Turtiainen has become a real thorn in the side of the far-right Islamophobic party. Apart from hisracist postings of George Floyd, encouraging violence against asylum reception centers, assaulting a fourteen-year-old, wishing that asylum seekers would drown at sea,inciting civil war, anti-vaxxer buffoonery, and other issues.
His latest tweet states that he would be ready to kill people if a friend of his was forced to use a mask.
It is dreadful what happened in France when a man beheaded a teacher for showing students caricatures of the Prophet Muhammad. Any sensible person, irrespective of his or her background, would condemn what happened. Even so, Islamophobes from the Perussuomalaiset (PS)* party were already spreading racism and trying to score political points.
Having lived in Argentina during a terrible dictatorship 1976-83, young people had three choices to change society: remain silent, move abroad, join a guerrilla group, and kill people.
Killing anyone for his or her ideas should be condemned strongly without labeling whole groups as terrorists.
One of the matters that racist parties like the PS forget is that they blame the whole group like @sallykohn tweets so eloquently.
I answered PS MP Sebastian Tynkkynen’s Islamophobic tweet.
Tweet: “Remember what happened has nothing to do with Islam, because Islam is a religion that promotes peace.”
Tynkkynen hits back at my tweet and asked what was racist about it?
Ladies and gentlemen, let me introduce to you the Soldiers of Odin, a far-right group with close ties with neo-Nazis. When they appeared, the media seemed to be amazed and swept off its feet, while the police played down the problem, just like the previous government did.
Just like in the Oulu sexual assault cases, the police asked white Finns to avoid contact with foreigners (see below). Even so, the most surprising matter is how the police played down the real threat: far-right vigilante gangs like the Soldiers of Odin.
Detective Chief Inspector Markku Tuominen is quoted as warning Finns to avoid taking routes that are risky. He states: “If a foreigner attempts to make close contact with you, you should leave rapidly and, if needed, call the emergency response center. It would be advisable to save the 112 number as a shortcut number on your phone. You should not begin talking with a foreigner because he may get the wrong signal.” Source: Helsingin Sanomat.
Apart from Tuominen’s example, the police in Häme, which welcomed Asikkala-Turva vigilante gang despite some of its members have criminal records.
The police service of Häme is an unfortunate, disappointing example of how biased the Finnish police service is when it welcomed Asikkala-Turva’s vigilante gang activity even though one of its members has a criminal record. Criticized by then-Interior Minister Petteri Orpo for being too lenient, according to Helsingin Sanomat.
Soldiers of Odin founder Mika Ranta, who promises to pay 1,000 euros to anyone who knock a woman’s teeth down her throat. Source: Twitter.
National Police Commissioner Seppo Kolehmainen didn’t shine either in the face of these far-right groups. He stated in 2016 that vigilante gangs are fine as long as they didn’t break the law. “It’s a positive matter that [Finnish] citizens [note: not migrants] are interested in their neighborhood’s security and take part and debate in such matters,” he was quoted as saying in Helsingin Sanomat.
Apart from having a reputation for one of the best education systems in the world, Finland has the dubious honor of exporting far-right ideology.
The Anti-Defamation League warned about the presence of the vigilante gang in the United States.
It says in a statement: “Moreover, Soldiers of Odin USA is attracting adherents from both of the two largest segments of the American extreme right—white supremacists and the antigovernment extremist “Patriot” movement—and may be the most significant coalition of such extremists in the U.S. since the early 1990s.”
The Soldiers of Odin are a group that glorifies violence and Nazi ideology. In Migrant Tales, we have written a number of stories exposing their violent ideology like taking over a border checkpoint in Tornio.
A police offer who insulted and hit a woman in a taxi line in Turku was suspended for three months from work, according to tabloid Iltalehti. Considering the racist statements made by the police officer, who in his words was too drunk to remember what he said, why wasn’t he sacked?
National Police Commissioner Seppo Kolehmainen tweeted in February that racism has no place in the Finnish police service. He announced the following steps to tackle racism in the police service. These included a new equality and diversity plan approved in June 2017; an “ethical channel” where police can anonymously report racism; and mandatory social media training for the police to reinforce rules of good conduct, among other measures.
A survey published in 2016, showed that 25.1% of 2,489 policemen surveyed voted for the conservative National Coalition Party (Kokoomus) and 24.4% for the Islamophobic Perussuomalaiset (PS)* party. Long Play, an investigative online website, revealed in June 2017, a secret Facebook group consisted of mostly police officers and which made racist statements about Muslims, minorities and migrants.
* The Perussuomalaiset (PS) party imploded on June 13, 2017, into two factions, the PS and New Alternative, which is now called Blue Reform. Despite the name changes, we believe that it is the same party in different clothing. Both factions are hostile to cultural diversity never mind Muslims and other visible minorities. One is more open about it while the other says it in a different way.
A direct translation of Perussuomalaiset in English would be something like “basic” or “fundamental Finn.” Official translations of the Finnish name of the party, such as Finns Party or True Finns, promote in our opinion nativist nationalism and racism. We, therefore, at Migrant Tales prefer to use in our postings the Finnish name of the party once and after that the acronym PS.
Migrant Tales insight: A reader sent us this Facebook posting he would like to report in our blog community. Daniel Malpica alleges that the bouncer at the Milliklubi Bar & Disco (Kaivokatu 12, 00100 Helsinki) acts violently towards him.
The wife of the Pakistani migrant, whose husband was brutally attacked by three Finnish white youthsin February, is satisfied with the 9.5-year prison sentence handed by a Vantaa court Friday. The three youths were sentenced for attempted murder.
The incident has caused concern among the Pakistani and Muslim community.
If you ask some members of the nursing staff at the hospital where the Pakistani migrant was treated in February and March for his wounds, they will tell you that they have never seen such a case of brutal violence in their careers.
The attackers used a knife, ax and a pointed object to attack the victim. Removal of the stitches alone took four hours, according to the nurses.
“We are satisfied with the court ruling and it is not common that such a stiff sentence are handed in Finland,” she said. “We are satisfied because justice was served. The fact that it was not a hate crime is a bit confusing.”
Even if the victim and his wife still insist that what happened was a hate crime, the police were quick to deny it. The day after the attack, the police told the wife that it could not be a hate crime because the perpetrators “were intoxicated.”
Later on, the police told the wife that what happened to her husband was not a hate crime because “it wasn’t planned.”
As everyone knows, a hate crime can be committed even if the person is intoxicated or isn’t planned.
Migrant Tales asked the investigating police officer, Detective Chief Inspector Mikko Minkkinen, if he had made such statements to the wife but denied ever saying them.
After the attack, which took place on Friday, it was on Tuesday that the police put out a statement.
Detective Chief Inspector Minkkinen denied on that day to the media that what happened was not a hate crime.
Some believe that the Finnish police may play down racism as a motive in such cases for fear of repercussions from the migrant community. The majority of Pakistanis are Muslims.
The wife of the victim said that her husband is afraid to go out at night. “I don’t allow him to go our alone an he feels uneasy about being out alone even when it starts to get dark,” she added.
A Pakistani was stabbed several times on Friday night in Vantaa, according to Helsinki Times. The victim is 37 and the father of a four-year-old child.
UPDATE: The police service put out a statement Tuesday about the stabbing. It gave no details except that the investigation is ongoing. A story in Helsingin Sanomatquotes detective chief inspector, Mikko Minkinen, was quoted as saying that apparently, it wasn’t a hate crime.
Writes Helsinki Times: “Assailants inflicted 20-30 stab wounds on the victim using knives and other edged weapons. His lips were also cut, and was stabbed near the eye. Fortunately, the victim was transferred to hospital urgently and underwent a major surgery. Although still in ICU [intensive care unit] and in critical condition with severe injuries, his situation is not life-threatening anymore, and he has regained consciousness.”
The attack happened on Friday and Helsinki Times is apparently the only paper in Finland that reported the incident.
As usual, the police has taken its time in putting out a statement about the motive of the crime.
The Finnish Immigration Service (Migri) continues to insist that countries like Iraq, where Finnish nationals are discouraged from visiting, is a safe country to deport people. Migri deports everyone they don’t give residence permits. You leave either “voluntarily” or by “force.”
Iraq isn’t a safe country, and sensible people understand that Migri’s tough asylum policy hinges on the Blue Reform, formerly the Perussuomalaiset (PS)*.
Even if the PS split into two parties, both loathe asylum seekers from countries like Iraq, Afghanistan, and Somalia.
Migrant Talesdocumented two cases last year of two Iraqi asylum seekers who faced violent deaths upon returning from Finland.
The latest story to reach us is of an Iraqi who was “deported voluntarily” to his home country two months ago and attacked by militias on Saturday.
The history of the Iraqi victim is very similar to the many thousands that fled to Finland in 2015.
A fellow asylum seeker from Iraq writes:
The asylum seeker, who alerted us, said that a car had followed him near his home with three people. They cut him with a knife and spared his life. “The next time we see you, we will kill you!” they warned.
