“…the job of the politician is to guarantee the safety of its own citizens and to guard its borders, and that’s what Finns expect.”
Perussuomalaiset (PS)* MP Laura Huhtasaari, A-studio (3.6.2024)
The answer given by PS MP Huhtasaari to justify pushbacks and deaths is a raw example of the inhumanity used during Nazi Germany to justify the wholesale slaughter of Jews, minorities and other enemies of the régime.
The question answered by Huhtasaari is on the Yle election compass and a poll, which asks: “A person trying to reach Europe can be turned back at the external border, even if it would put their lives in danger.”
What else can we expect from politicians who justify the deaths of people after pushbacks? What kind of treacherous slippery slope are we on in Finland?
The above MEP candidates in the 2019 MEP election didn’t mind if people drowned in the Mediterranean. All of them, except Eija-Riitta Korhola, have moderated their radical stances. Henna Virkkunen, Sebastian Tykkynen, Mauri Peltokangas, and Pirkko Ruoho-Lerner would care less for a person’s safety and life if he or she were a victim of pushbacks at the border. Source: Yle
If we want and to shed light on what may happen at the Finnis-Russian border, we can look at the inhumane treatment suffered by asylum seekers in other EU borders.
Of these, there is the Greek-Turkish Evros River border, where pushbacks and human rights violations are the order of the day. Migrant Tales was a small part of this important documentary.
Pushback Law
The Finnish government introduced last month a new Draft Act on Temporary Measures to Combat Instrumentalised Migration, or the so-called pushback law Researcher Milka Sormunen called it in her essay “legalizing illegality.”
One of the questions not addressed by the media, never mind politicians, is what will spare the Finnish-Russian border from becoming another shameful EU example of violent pushbacks and Human Rights violations?
Agnieska Holland’s Green Border documentary highlights the psychological stress due to the brutal treatment of refugees at the hands of Polish border guards due to pushbacks.
The Finnish National Border Guard told Migrant Tales that measures, like denying asylum at the eastern land border, are only “to mitigate the threat posed by the instrumentalization of migration and the subsequent threat that it poses to the national security and public order.”
When asked if the Finnish-Russian border can become a messy and violent place like other borders of the EU, the Border Guard stated it “will strictly follow the law when performing their tasks.”
While the Border Guard and the government speak of protecting “national security and public order,” one wonders why people asking for asylum at the Finnish-Russian border pose such a threat if in 2015 32,360 asylum seekers came to Finland and tens of thousands of Ukrainians fleeing war? Could it be that the majority of asylum seekers at the Finnish-Russian border come from Muslim-majority countries? Since 1 August 2023 to 29 January 2024, a total of 1,271 persons sought asylum at the border with well over 90% coming from Muslim majority countries.
After pouring over the thousands of testimonies only on the Greek-Turkish Evros River, we can conclude:
1. Breach of non-refoulement, denying people the right to asylum.
2. Illegal pushbacks hidden from public scrutiny.
3. Destruction of evidence that may be used by asylum seekers against the authorities.
4. Cover-ups by border guards and Frontex of their extralegal activities.
5. Secret detention centers.
6. Little to no scrutiny by the government and EU bodies.
The secrecy of Prime Minister Petteri Orpo and its far-right Perussuomalaiset (PS)* partners should be seen as a faint signal of what to expect. The fact that Frontext is advising the Finnish Border Guards on how to handle asylum seekers at the border suggests terrible times.
Come and join us on 27 June at 5 pm-21 pm a private screening of the documentary Anachoma about the abuses and pushbacks on the Evros River. Is the same possible at the Finnih-Russian border? The address: Roushilankatu 37, 50100 Mikkeli, Finland.