Migrant Tales got two messages Wednesday night from two asylum seekers. One told about an Afghan asylum seeker at the Espoo asylum reception center run by Luona, and the other was of an Iraqi national at the Suonsaari asylum reception center in Mikkeli. Both were detained by the police and are awaiting deportation.
The asylum reception center in Espoo is the same one where Jayyed Abbas Jafari died of a suspected brain hemorrhage in 2015. Suomen Kuvalehti wrote an extensive story about what happened to Jafari in January 2016.
Writes the asylum seeker about when the apprehension by the police of the Afghan asylum seeker:
The Iraqi asylum seeker in Mikkeli, located about 240km northeast of Helsinki, had three rejections for asylum. He’s friend writes about him:
“He is a normal guy who likes to surf the internet, listen to music, believes strongly in Jesus and is a member of the Pentecostal Church. He is energetic and from Baghdad. From what I know, he’s faced a lot of personal threats in Iraq and that is what he told Migri [the Finnish Immigration Service]. Like many asylum seekers [that came to Europe], he travelled far as well all way from Iraq through a number of EU countries to get to Finland. He came here because this is a peaceful country, not like Iraq. Life has not been too kind to him: three negative decisions from Mirgri and district courts and the fear of being deported back to Iraq. That’s why he went to Germany in the hope of not being deported. Things didn’t work out for him.”
“The Iraqi asylum seeker has been in police custody for three days. They sent him an invitation to come to the police station. The Red Cross, which runs the asylum center in Mikkeli, drove him to the police station where he was detained. I spoke to him by phone and he said that he hasn’t eaten for three days. I told him that he mustn’t give up. He must eat so he’ll have strength.”
Two deportations in the pipeline, one Afghan, and one Iraqi.