The shooting of an Iraqi asylum seeker in the northern Finnish city of Kemi has shocked the 400-500-strong Iraqi community in that city, according to an asylum seeker who spoke to Migrant Tales by phone. “The shooting [of what happened Friday] has made us very afraid,” he said. “Everyone [the Iraqi community] speaks about what happened on Friday.”
The twenty-one-year-old man who got shot at Friday spoke through a friend since he doesn’t speak English.
“My friend [the victim] feels depressed, scared and is in shock,” he said. “He got shot in his country and now he gets shot here.”
And added: “We escape danger[in Iraq] and all we want to do is live in peace.”
The twenty-one-year-old victim confirmed that there was also another asylum seeker, who is 19 years old, that was shot at on Friday as well.
The Finn who shot at the two asylum seekers speaks in an insulting manner to all refugees that pass by his home.
“For about a month or a month and a half this man has been insulting my friend [and other Iraqis] with words like vittu (f-word) and mene kotona (go home),” the victim’s friend said. “One day he just took his rifle and shot at them.”
When the police took away the suspect, he was still yelling and swearing at them.
Migrant Tales tipped off Rovaniemi-based Lapin Kansa about what happened. A story was published today as well in Kemi-based Pohjolan Sanomat.
YLE published a story about the shooting as well.