The European Court of Human Rights has accepted two appeals from Finland. One of these is of a Sunni Muslim from Iraq whose asylum application was turned down by the Finnish Immigration Service (Migri). The second one is of a Somali national living in Finland who was refused a work permit.
Miro Del Gaudio, attorney-at-law and founder of Lex Gaudius, said that the decision to accept Abdulahi Awad’s appeal against Migri shows that the world still has a sense of justice in the face of the coronavirus pandemic.
“Awad’s case [which we are representing] exposes the vicious cycles of asylum seekers,” said Del Gaudio. “The Somali was forced to give up his permanent job because he was not granted by Migri a work permit.”
In order for Awad to get a work permit, he would have needed a valid identification to get an alien’s passport. The only identification he had was from Somalia, which is not recognized by the Finnish authorities.
“No valid identification means no alien’s passport, which in turn led to him giving up his permanent job,” concluded Del Gaudio.