By Enrique Tessieri
The European Court of Human Rights and the UN Committee against Torture have stopped the deportation of a number of asylum seekers in Finland in the last months, reports Helsingin Sanomat. Calls by different NGOs to the end to such deportations appears to have had an impact.
Finland has had a dubious record on asylum seekers that stretches back to the cold war years, when Finland returned Soviet citizens back to the former USSR as well as today gays and torture victims to countries where such people may face imprisonment or death.
If you are interested about these types of asylum seekers who are returned and put in harms way in their home countries, tune into TV1 at 9:30 pm today.
The cold war era could shed some light on why some Finns see immigrants and refugees as a threat. How can we have empathy for asylum seekers if we returned such people to the Soviet Union and had no regard for their human rights?
Just like more Finns are raising their voices against racism in Finland, the same should be done concerning the deportation of gays and torture victims.
Finland is a good country that should uphold human rights, not act arbitrarily and with total disregard for the safety of those that seek shelter from persecution.