Right to Live - Asylum seekers demonstration in Helsinki

HELP ME! "I have now been in Metsälä detention center for two months. I can't sleep and can't eat because I'm scared that the police will come and deport me. Back in Iraq I have nowhere to go because my father has turned against me and called the militia. I'm scared they will kill me at the Baghdad airport.  I cannot go to my home town Nasiriyah, I cannot stay in Baghdad. Yesterday there was another explosion and many civilians died. I wish to stay in Turku, Finland. I have both local and refugee friends there. I love Turku. I would like to marry and have kids and run my own business as a car mechanic. My friend already promised me a job, but now I've been told it's too late.  I never did anything wrong or criminal. I just want to live in peace. Help me!” Ali has been informed by the immigration police that he will be deported on 31 May 2017, but since the police don’t treat the deportees as human beings but rather view them as num...

AUTA MINUA! Ali, 25, Metsälän säilöönottokeskus 30.5.2017: "Olen ollut säilöönotossa yli kaksi kuukautta. En voi nukkua enkä syödä, sillä pelkään, että poliisi tulee hakemaan ja pakkopalauttaa minut Irakiin. Irakissa minulla ei ole paikkaa minne mennä. Kotikaupunkiini Nasiriyahiin en voi palata, sillä isäni on kääntänyt minulle selkänsä. Pelkään, että sotilaat tappavat minut jo Bagdadin kentällä. Bagdadissa minulla ei ole yhtään ystävää. Eilen siellä räjähti taas pommi ja useita siviilejä kuoli.  Haluaisin jäädä Suomen Turkuun, jossa minulla on sekä paikallisia että turvapaikanhakijaystäviä. Rakastan Turkua. Haluan mennä täällä naimisiin ja saada lapsia ja perustaa autokorjaamon. Ystäväni lupasi minulle työn, mutta minulle sanottiin, että se on liian myöhäistä. En ole tehnyt mitään väärää enkä rikollista. Tahdon vain elää rauhassa. Auttakaa minua!" Alille on ilmoitettu pakkopalautuspäiväksi keskiviikko 31.5., mutta ulkomaalaispoliisi ei kohtele pakkopal...

Asylum seekers’ RightToLive demonstration has started negotiations with the City of Helsinki construction department concerning their right to demonstrate at Helsinki Railway Square. “We have demonstrated for 100 days, observing the law and in good cooperation with both the police and the city, and we believe we will be able to stay at the Square”, says Ahmad Hadi, organiser of the demonstration. Asylum seekers and their Finnish supporters consider that the law strongly protects the right to demonstrate. The right to demonstrate is a key fundamental right and human right (§ 13 of the Constitution of Finland, Article 11 of the European Convention on Human Rights), and public authorities, such as the city and its officials, must promote the exercise of the right to demonstrate (§ 22 of the Constitution, § 4 of the Assembly Act). The demonstrators’ cooperation with the World Village Festival has also gone well, and the demonstrators look forward to the multicultural event taking...

[TIEDOTE] Turvapaikanhakijoiden Oikeus elää -mielenilmaus on käynnistänyt neuvottelut Helsingin kaupungin rakennusviraston kanssa oikeudestaan mielenosoittaa Rautatientorilla. “Olemme mielenosoittaneet pian sata päivää lakia noudattaen ja hyvässä yhteistyössä niin poliisin kuin kaupungin kanssa ja uskomme, että saamme jäädä torille”, sanoo mielenilmauksen järjestäjä Ahmad Hadi.  Turvapaikanhakijat ja heidän suomalaiset tukijansa katsovat, että laki suojaa vahvasti mielenilmausoikeutta. Mielenosoitusoikeus on keskeinen perus- ja ihmisoikeus (Perustuslaki 13 §, Euroopan ihmisoikeussopimus 11 artikla) ja julkisen vallan, kuten kaupungin ja sen virkamiesten tulee edistää mielenosoitusoikeuden käyttämista (Perustuslaki 22 §, Kokoontumislaki 4 §).  Mielenosoittajien ja Maailma kylässä festivaalin yhteistyö on myös sujunut hyvin ja mielenilmauksessa odotetaan monikulttuurista tapahtumaa torille  27.-28. toukokuuta .  Tulevana lauantaina torill...

[PRESS RELEASE] Late Tuesday night a flight left Finland on which several asylum seekers were forcibly deported into Kabul. An Afghan asylum seeker Mohammad Javid held that deportation flights are a human rights violation. “It is known that not all asylum seekers have been given an adequate asylum process”, he says. The security situation in Afghanistan has not been this bad in sixteen years, according to Javid. “The government is very weak and corrupted”, he says. “The Afghanistan government can not provide safety for the deportees.” A delegation from Afghanistan visited Finland early this week. “It is a question of aid, that Afghanistan gets when it accepts deportations of asylum seekers from Finland and other EU countries”, Javid states. The Afghan asylum seekers are terrified and afraid. “We appeal to the Finnish government so that it would stop these inhumane forced deportations”, Javid says. Noor – who is married to Mari from Salo – is one of the Afghans who was forced ...

[TIEDOTE]   Myöhään tiistai-iltana 16.5. Suomesta lähti lentokone, jolla pakkopalautettiin useita turvapaikanhakijoita Kabuliin. Afganistanilainen turvapaikanhakija Mohammad Javid pitää pakkolentoja ihmisoikeusrikkomuksina. “On tiedossa, etteivät kaikki turvapaikanhakijat ole saaneet asianmukaista turvapaikkakäsittelyä”, hän sanoo.   Afganistanin turvallisuustilanne ei ole Javidin mukaan ollut näin huono kuuteentoista vuoteen. “Hallinto on hyvin heikko ja korruptoitunut”, hän sanoo. “Afganistanin hallitus ei pysty tarjoamaan turvaa maahan palautetuille.” Suomessa vieraili alkuviikosta valtuuskunta Afganistanista. “On kyse avusta, jonka Afganistan saa, kun se hyväksyy turvapaikanhakijoiden pakkopalautukset Suomesta ja EU-maista,” Javid toteaa. Afganistanilaiset turvapaikanhakijat ovat kauhuissaan ja peloissaan. “Vetoamme Suomen hallitukseen, että se pysäyttäisi nämä epäinhimilliset pakkopalautukset." Salossa asuvan Marin puoliso Noor on yksi afgaaneista, jotka pak...

The prolonged processing of asylum matters has created a circle of hopelessness  that is reflected in undesirable behaviour, including sexual offences HELSINGIN SANOMAT wrote a big article on sexual offences associated with Iraqi people (Kotimaa 12.5.) . The article was titled “A rise in sexual offences committed by Iraqi people.” The bottom line is, we are talking about suspected crimes. It is well known that when sexual crime cases committed by immigrants have gone through our justice system (police investigation, prosecutor’s decision, the actual trial), 10 to 20 percent of the original suspected cases are confirmed as actual crimes. At this point it is important to strongly emphasize that every single crime is one too many and they cannot be defended. According to the article by HS, an analysis by the National Bureau of Investigation reveals that “for every 1 000 Iraqi citizens residing in Finland, there were 12.9 suspected cases of sexual offence. For every 1 0...

Please donate to support the asylum seekers’ demonstration! ACCOUNT: Aktia FI03 4055 0010 7993 16 RECIPIENT: Oikeudet ilman rajoja ry REFERENCE NUMBER: 33093 Please note! Use the reference number so the donation is targeted for the demonstration. Donate an amount of your choice! Since February, asylum seekers have been protesting in Helsinki Railway Square 24/7, demanding a more just asylum policy. The demonstrators call for a just and impartial asylum process and demand putting the forced deportations to unsafe countries on hold. You can support the demonstration by donating money through this fundraiser, which is facilitated by the organization Oikeudet ilman rajoja ry. Donations are used for financing basic needs of the demonstration in Helsinki mainly. The money will not be used for personal cash donations. If the demonstration ends before the donated money runs out, the surplus funds will be used for supporting basic needs of the asylum seekers and undocumented ...

The decisions are significant as they will guide the application of the law from now on.  Translation of article in Finnish by  Tiina Salumäki http://yle.fi/uutiset/3-9596855   5 May 2017 at 13:15, updated 5 May 2017 at 13:17 Kuva: Seppo Samuli / Lehtikuva Caption: Demonstration against the deportation of asylum seekers at Helsinki-Vantaa airport on 3 April. The Supreme Administrative Court has reviewed granting international protection for asylum seekers from Afghanistan. The Supreme Administrative Court issued decisions on four cases, two of which discussed the security situation in Afghanistan and two involved families’ ability to relocate internally, i.e. to live somewhere else than in their home area. The decisions are yearbook decisions that will now guide the application of the law in similar cases. The Supreme Administrative Court decided in favour of the asylum seekers in two cases out of four. In addition to the security situation in Afghanistan,...