Migrant Tales asked in April after the tragic death of an eighteen-year-old Somali Finn in Helsinki on April 26 is treated by the police as a hate crime. What is equally surprising is the total news blackout on social media by the police as if communities affected by what happened don’t have the right to
Read on »Posts Tagged: Finnish police service
Finnish white privilege #59: In this country, you are guilty until proven innocent
Interior Minister Kai Mykkänen and the government are using the same tactics as the Nazis in World War 2 but in a different context. The government is not rounding up people and killing them in cold blood but punishing them severely for the crimes others did. Imagine the migrant community of Finland, especially Muslims and
Read on »Police officer fined and charged to pay 5,140 euros for making racist statements and slapping a women twice on the face
A Finnish police officer in Turku was fined to pay 5,140 euros in charges and lawyers fees, according to tabloid Ilta-Sanomat. The police officer, who admitted being too drunk to remember what he said and did at a taxi line, called a woman who attempted to calm the man a “refugee-loving whore” and slapped her twice on the face.
Read on »Little to no trust in the Finnish police profits those who exploit needy migrants
Migrant Tales gets a steady stream of accounts of exploited asylum seekers by unscrupulous employers. Some of the stories are tragic since they push asylum seekers, who get paid under the table, to do the company’s criminal work.
Read on »To Finland from a Pakistani family: A second letter about hate crime*
Migrant Tales (MT) insight: In mid-March, MT published a letter from a Pakistani family. The victim, the father of the family, was brutally attacked on February 23 by three white Finnish youths. The victim and his wife believe that what happened was a hate crime. The police disagree. According to the wife, the following day after the Pakistani migrant was attacked, the police called the wife and stated that it was not a hate crime because “the suspects were intoxicated.”
Read on »From Black February 2012 to the brutal attack of a Pakistani migrant in 2018 – are these hate crimes?
Is it a coincidence that Black February, which took place in 2012 and involved the violent deaths of three members of the Muslim community of Finland, happened on the same month when a Pakistani was brutally attacked by three white Finns in Vantaa? While the timing may have happened by chance, there are similarities between what happened in February 2012 and on February 23.
Read on »Study finds ethnic profiling is a widespread problem in Finland among the police, Finnish Border Guards and security guards
The Stopped research and journalism project, Finland’s first-ever comprehensive study on ethnic profiling, published its finding Tuesday. While there have been scores of stories published about ethnic profiling on publications like Migrant Tales, there is nothing surprising by the study’s findings. If there is something that surprised us it was that ethnic profiling, despite continuous denials
Read on »The roots of hate crime and hate speech are in Finnish society, right under our noses
The media and police are mirrors of our prejudices in our society. Our lame reaction to such social ills not only expose our weaknesses as a society but hide and protect the real culprit: institutional racism.
Read on »Pakistanis, Muslims, feel insecure in Finland after dreadful attack against a migrant
The brutal attack against a Pakistani on Friday night (February 23) is one of the worst-ever against a migrant. It took four hours last week to remove his stitches. As a result of what happened, the Pakistani and Muslim communities of Finland don’t feel safe.
Read on »We have only to blame ourselves for the rise of vigilante gangs, racism and fascism in Finland
Shortly, we’ll look at this period as the
Read on »Migrants and minorities fear that Turku will fuel more hostility and racism in Finland
After the deadly terrorist attack in Barcelona Thursday, some expected the worse in Finland when the following day a young man stabbed indiscriminately ten people that killed two, according to YLE News. The police confirmed on Saturday that what happened was a terrorist attack.
Read on »Musta Barbaari’s mother and sister charged by the police in “ethnic profiling” case
Singer Musta Barbaari’s mother and sister are going to be charged for resistance to cooperate with law enforcement officials and insubordination, according to YLE. In a highly publicized case in social media last year, Musta Barbaari, whose real name is James Nikander, wrote that his mother and sister were stopped by plainclothes police officials in downtown Helsinki who asked them to show their passport.
Read on »Interior Minister Paula Risikko and National Police Commissioner Seppo Kolehminen are the great pretenders about racism
The recent scandal that came to light of a secret Facebook group comprising of about 2,800 police officials reveals everything about what racism is in Finland. A big chunk of that racism is denial and playing down the social ill.
Read on »The Finnish police service’s deep denial of racism among its ranks is no surprise
The publishing of the racist comments in a secret Facebook group for the Finnish police by online news site Long Play shouldn’t surprise us, even if Interior Minister Paula Risikko and National Police Commissioner Seppo Kolehminen suggest the contrary.
Read on »Throwing water and hurling racist insults at black people is ok if you are a white Finn
Migrant Tales has followed a story that sadly began in the Helsinki neighborhood of Herttoniemi in May 2016. A white woman threw a bucketful of water at three adults and four children from the second floor and started hurling racist insults. Two of the victims were women from Kenya and another one was a white woman from the United States.
Read on »Asylum seekers: Finland is not a country that abides by the rule of law
What does a comment by a police service official say about our country if he obstructs an asylum seekers’ right to justice? Migrant Tales understands that an Iraqi family, made up of a husband, wife, mother-in-law and a child, was told the following by a police official after receiving their first rejection for asylum from the Finnish Immigration Service (Migri).
Read on »Iraqi asylum seeker FS: Deportation countdown begins
The police service in Seinjäjoki, a city located 30km from the Finnish Emigrant Museum of Peräseinäjoki, told a young Iraqi asylum seeker on Monday of his third rejections for asylum by the supreme district court and has two choices: To return “voluntarily” or “by force” to Iraq.
Read on »Iraqi asylum seeker apprehended by the police service on January 6 expects to be released soon from detention
SH, who was apprehended by the police on January 6 together with KM, another Iraqi asylum seeker freed Thursday, is still being held at the Metsälä detention camp. SH is being held together with AM, another Iraqi asylum.
Read on »Why do the Finnish police deport Iraqi asylum seekers if there is no repatriation agreement with Baghdad?
In early December, National Police Board Chief Superintendent Mia Poutanen was quoted as saying in YLE News it is “a false notion” that Finland needs a repatriation agreement with a country like Iraq to deport somebody. Migrant Tales got in touch with an Iraqi asylum seeker who is being detained and risks deportation.
Read on »Seven months and no justice yet after a Kenyan woman was racially insulted and splashed by a bucket of water
Remember when a Kenyan woman was sitting outside her home in the Helsinki neighborhood of Helsinki one Sunday afternoon on May 22 and a white Finnish woman splashed a bucket of water on her, her children and their friends after shouting racist insults? Well, nothing has happened since then even if Ruth Waweru-Folabit pressed charges against the woman and complained to the non-discrimination ombudsman seven months ago.
Read on »Defining white Finnish privilege #32: The white Finnish police service and “them”
If there is an institution that is the epitome of white Finnish privilege that is doing everything possible to hinder cultural and ethnic diversity among its ranks, that institution is the Finnish police service.
Read on »Two stories, two versions about an incident involving asylum seekers in Finland
Two stories, two versions. One by Migrant Tales where asylum seekers allege that a white Finnish driver in a GMC SUV tried to hit them and another one in Mikkeli-based Länsi Savo where the police suspect a traffic dispute that led to an argument where one asylum seeker got hit in the head.
Read on »Finnish Neo-Nazi thugs suspected of assaulting a man in broad daylight
How is it possible that a man is beaten up in broad daylight next to the Helsinki Railway Station next to a gathering of Neo-Nazis? How is it possible that this far-right group, which calls itself Kansallinen vastarintaliike (SVL), allegedly beat up the person, who is sent unconscious to the hospital to die six days later from cerebral hemorrhages?
Read on »Who determines who we are?
Here’s a simple question: By law, a person is a Finn if he or she is a Finnish citizen. Why, then, are some of these Finnish citizens spoken of and near-constantly reminded by society that they are so-called “people with foreign backgrounds?”
Read on »Former PS deputy councilman of Helsinki to be charged for ethnic agitation
Former Perussuomalaiset (PS)* deputy councilman for Helsinki, Olli Sademies, who suggested last year on Facebook that Africans should be forcibly castrated will be charged for ethnic agitation, according to Helsingin Sanomat, Finland’s largest-circulating daily.
Read on »When will the Finnish police service stop denying that ethnic profiling isn’t an issue?
The Finnish police service acts as if it has never heard of ethnic profiling. Even if ethnic profiling cases by the police are rarely brought to the attention of the media, there was one case made public Friday by singer Musta Barbaari, whose mother and sister were – according to a Facebook posting – treated in “a rude manner” and were “humiliated publicly” by the police.
Read on »Uyi Osazee: The reality of ethnic and racial profiling in Finland
I remember clearly the first time I was profiled by the police in Helsinki. It was the evening rush hour in the city and I had just made my way down the crowded escalator that leads to the underground metro platform in Hakaniemi, just two stops from the city center. As I got off the escalators, a metro was blaring out alarms, signaling it was about to depart. I quickened my steps, half running, half walking, determined to get on it. I rushed forward, hoping to beat the soon closing metro doors. A few paces off the doors, I was stopped by two individuals. They literally jumped in front of me, forcing me to stop abruptly to avoid colliding into them.
Read on »Police allegedly threatened asylum seeker with deportation if “he didn’t behave” and stop protesting
A fight that took place today between two families at the Kolari asylum reception center forced five police service vans and 12-15 police to arrive at the camp, which is located in a far-flung village of 3,857 inhabitants, according to sources contacted by Migrant Tales. The fight is one matter but what the police allegedly told an asylum seeker is equally worrying.
Read on »YLE of Finland: When the police and journalists use statistics with malicious intent and irresponsibly
The media plays a decisive role in broadcasting bigotry, sanitized hate speech, and populism in Finland. A recent example of the latter is a story published by YLE where the police claim that crimes committed during the beginning of this year by foreigners in Eastern Finland grew by 179%!
Read on »Ethnic profiling reveals a lot about how the Finnish police service and non-discrimination ombudsman see cultural diversity
While it is a fact that the Non-Discrimination Ombudsman looks into complaints about alleged ethnic profiling by the police service and National Boarder Guard, more questions surround this issue than answers.
Read on »Case Downtown Helsinki: How the police ethnically profile people
During the weekend, the police service together with the Finnish Border Guard wilfully targetted foreigners for spot identity checks in Helsinki, Espoo, and Vantaa. Migrant Tales heard of a case in Kamppi where four young men were walking. The police stopped two young Finns, one who was black- and brown-skinned.
Read on »The Finnish police service and its issues with ethnic profiling
When the Finnish police service speaks to the media, white Finns usually give it the benefit of the doubt. Even if the police service tries its best to assure us that it doesn’t ethnically profile people, belief and credibility are in the eye of the beholder.
Read on »The police spot check “foreigners” Friday in Helsinki, Espoo and Vantaa but it’s not called ethnic profiling
If there is an institution that discriminates and maintains white Finnish privilege in this country, it is the police service. A story by tabloid Iltalehti reports that the police service together with the Finnish Border Guard wilfully targetted foreigners for spot identity checks in Helsinki, Espoo and Vantaa.
Read on »The anti-immigration narrative of politicians, the police and President Sauli Niinistö is no mistake
From the fall we have heard the police service, politicians, government ministers, the media and recently the head of state of Finland, Sauli Niinistö, give statements that bolster racist and far-right ideology that label and victimize asylum seekers, migrants, and minorities in this country.
Read on »Finland must get off its whining horse and seek proactive solutions to the asylum seeker situation
Like many anti-immigration politicians, even former National Police Commissioner Mikko Paatero believes that there is some magic number that we shouldn’t cross concerning the number of asylum seekers that arrive to our country. In 2015, a record 32,000 asylum seekers came to Finland. How many arrive this year is an open question.
Read on »Finnish police service claims that sexual harassment is new in Finland’s sexual crime history
Finnish deputy chief of police of Helsinki, Ilkka Koskimäki, is the latest representative of the police service whose statements have left people scratching their heads. He’s quoted as saying in the Daily Telegraph: “This phenomenon [sexual harassment] is new in Finnish sexual crime history. We have never before had this kind of sexual harassment happening at
Read on »The Perussuomalaiset decade (2011-19): Finland’s rendezvous with xenophobia and nationalism
Here’s the question we all know the answer to concerning the rise and fall of the Perussuomalaiset (PS)* party during this decade: We accomplished nothing, absolutely nothing, polarized society, scapegoated migrants and Muslims and lied through our teeth with poker faces. Our decade-long rendezvous with right-wing populism and xenophobia has had a negative political and
Read on »Vigilante gangs, the Finnish police service and our denial of racism
The big news story in Finland today is street patrols by xenophobic, far-right and neo-Nazi groups. That’s not all. Some of the members of these patrol gangs have criminal records.
Read on »Why do the police identify Others as “person with migrant background” even if this is confusing, even illegal?
The tabloid story below picked up by Koko Hubara on her Facebook wall is an excellent example of how the define ethnicity and race. The police service is one of the most eager institutions in this country when it comes to labeling who are real Finns and who are not.
Read on »Finland also locks up asylum seeker children
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- A child in the Joutseno Immigration Removal Center.
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