According to some sources, a large number of asylum seekers amounting to about 4,000 had abandoned plans to seek asylum in Finland. Considering that two-thirds of the Iraqis that came to Finland last year are young single men, it’s nothing odd that some are returning.
In my own research of the Finns that colonized Argentina in 1906, 75% of those first settlers were single men. When the going got exceptionally tough the first to abandon the colony were single men. Those who stayed on were families.
Certainly the circumstances of leaving Finland in 1906 and Iraq in 2015 are vastly different. Iraq is a country that was invaded by the United States and its allies in 2003 and has ever since been absorbed in a vicious spiral of violence that has cost hundreds of thousands of deaths, according to some estimates.
Another factor that is forcing some Iraqis to return to their home country is the poor treatment and hostility they are getting. One asylum seeker said: “I’d rather die in my home country with dignity than suffer humiliation and a slow death in Finland.”
Some sources believe that those that are returning back to Iraq are making life difficult for those who are seeking asylum.
“There are cases were part of a family has returned back to Iraq while the other family members decided to stay in Finland,” a source said. “This erodes the cases of those that stay since Migri can claim to them that if some are returning it means that there’s no danger.”
Presently there is a refugee camp near the airport run by Luona where people are being flown back or deported weekly to countries like Iraq. If asylum seekers haven’t got a taste of how poorly Luona treats refugees, they will get a taste of it here.
Those asylum seekers that arrived in August are now getting their residence permit decisions from the Finnish Immigration Service, according to a source contacted by Migrant Tales.
They are returning mostly, because they weren’t real refugees in the first place, but economic “refugees”, who had totally unrealistic expectations and were disappointed that they weren’t offered more luxurious live, that the weather was too cold etc. Some of them, who are returning, have said this in their own words and added that “of course we wouldn’t be returning if there would be some real threat to our lives when we return”.