One of the most significant political debates going on in Finland now is the fate of about 40 Finnish women and children at the al-Hol camp in northeastern Syria. The debate has taken such shameful turns that even ministers have tuned to their followers on social media to ask whether these women and children should
Read on »Posts Tagged: Syria
Stop bickering and repatriate the wives and children of ISIS fighters now
The reaction to what Finland should do about 10 Finnish women who are alleged wives of ISIS fighters and their 30 children at the al-Hola camp in northeast Syria has all the characteristics of social media lynch mob populism and Islamophobia. The biggest trolls are not anonymous persons but opposition politicians of parties like the
Read on »Migrant Tales Podcast: Shirlene Green Newball talks to Rami Thawi
Shirlene Green Newball talks with Rami Thawi, a musician who has lived in many countries from Venezuela to Syria to Finland now. What inspires him to compose music and be from many places simultaneously. Rami songs are full of power and expose the challenges and power of being from many places.
Read on »Asylum seeker hiding in Kemi, Finland: “Why do they [Finnish Immigration Service] make our lives so difficult?”
Migrant Tales reported Thursday about how a deportation had broken and separated a family of three (or four) in the northern Finnish city of Kemi. The family’s father, 58, and son deported on Thursday at around noon to Lebanon while the mother, 56, escaped from the hospital and is now in hiding.
Read on »My name is Raghad Mchawh and I’m from Syria
My name is raghad, I’m from Syria. I’m 18 years old and I’m 10 years older than the war that rages in my country.
Read on »(Asylum Corner) Reporting on migration: magnifying glass or distorting lens?
On January 25th, the International Centre for Migration Policy Development (ICMPD) brought together a large group of experts and well-known panellists in Brussels to debate the ways to balance the narrative on migration on both sides of the Mediterranean. During the event, which relates to the scope of the EUROMED Migration IV project, Aidan White, director of the Ethical Journalism Network (EJN), presented the first report on the study he is currently conducting on behalf of ICMPD about media and migration in the Mediterranean area.
Read on »Ahmad Liath: “I left Iraq because I long for freedom”
Ahmad Liath was twelve years old when he left Iraq in 2005. Two years before that year, the United States invaded Iraq in 2003 and in 2004 his father was killed.
Read on »Facebook: Finland’s abstension and pitiful explanation why
Finland’s ambassador to Switzerland, Jari Luoto, isn’t too happy about Finland’s abstention on Tuesday when interior ministers met and decided to distribute 120,000 refugees.
Read on »Perussuomalaiset party wants Finland to turn back asylum seekers from Sweden
The populist anti-immigration Perussuomalaiset (PS)* party’s parliamentary group wants to turn back asylum seekers that are entering the country from Sweden to the northern city of Tornio, reports YLE in English. The PS are the only party in Finland making such a demand.
Read on »Facebook: REFUGEES WELCOME (TO FINLAND) ????
There are some disturbing reports that have emerged in the media about how some asylum seekers in Finland are getting a hostile reception. Trish Pääkkönen gives us a taste of what she went through when she tried to help a group of refugees at the the Helsinki and Espoo police stations.
Read on »Finland says yes to Commission refugee scheme but is still wishy-washy about its role in the crisis
While the announcement by Interior Minister Petteri Orpo that Finland will accept 2,400 asylum seekers under a European Commission scheme is a positive step in the right direction, according to YLE in English, what message does it send?
Read on »Institute of Race Relations: When solidarity fails
In observations made at a side-meeting of the 87th session of the Committee for the Elimination of Racial Discrimination (CERD),[1] the IRR’s director warned that Europe’s mishandling of the refugee crisis is fuelling racism.
Read on »Alan on Alan: A picture is worth a thousand words
Alan Anstead We had the same name, Alan. But apart from that our worlds were completely different. Alan Kurdi was a Syrian Kurd, escaping with his family from war and terrorism. I’m a working class Peckham (London) boy and 50 years older than my namesake was. What the photograph of Alan’s lifeless body washed up
Read on »Finland’s PM offers his home to refugees – how long will it take for the PS to exit government?
Finnish Prime Minister Juha Sipilä’s announcement Saturday that he’d offer his home to refugees is not only a good attempt by the government to steer Finland back to the direction of other Western European nations in the refugee ongoing crisis but a clear show of leadership that has been lacking.
Read on »Finland is slowly waking up to the humanitarian refugee crisis in Europe
You know that President Sauli Niinistö said something wrong about the humanitarian refugee crisis in Europe if Perussuomalaiset (PS)* spokesperson Matti Putkonen quotes the head of state to reinforce his party’s xenophobic and anti-cultural diversity message.
Read on »Our indecision and indifference to the humanitarian crisis facing Europe is the greatest threat
In the face of the humanitarian refugee crisis that we are seeing today in Europe, some leaders like German Chancellor Angela Merkel are offering leadership while others are frozen with indecision and indifference.
Read on »A cemetery called the Mediterranean
This will be one of the shortest posts ever published in Migrant Tales thanks to a picture published on the front page of El País of Madrid. Those dots on the water are people who got shipwrecked off the coast of Libya.
Read on »Saving one life, one refugee from Syria, IS important
Arguing that accepting a few hundred refugees from Syria is not important because it is a drop in the bucket, is an outrageous statement made by Jussi Halla-aho, Vesa-Matti Saarakkala and others. The other point they are trying to drive home, that these people will be a burden on Finland, exposes their loathing and ignorance.
Read on »How Syrian refugees fleeing war show how the Finnish media gives (again) racists inflated respectability and importance
Migrant Tales published a while back a story about how the media gives racists and radical anti-immigration groups inflated respectability and importance. Why should we care what a Perussuomalaiset (PS) MP like Jussi Halla-aho, who was on top of it convicted for ethnic agitation, thinks about giving asylum to Syrian refugees? Verkkouutiset is run by the
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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