Eveline Fadayel’s residence application rejected once again

The Finnish Immigration Service has rejected Egyptian grandmother Eveline Fadayel’s most recent application for a residence permit.
     
Fadayel, 65, submitted her application on March 17th after the Supreme Administrative Court had upheld the earlier negative decision.
      ”We are disappointed. They do not want to admit that they have been wrong”, said Fadayel’s son Maher Gerges to Helsingin Sanomat on Monday evening.
      ”If my mother’s situation does not meet the requirement of humanitarian reasons, what does then?” he asked.
     
The Finnish Immigration Service gave Fadayel a negative decision to her application in 2009.
      Since then both the Helsinki Administrative Court and the Supreme Administrative Court have ruled against Fadayel.
      In her application to the Supreme Administrative Court, Fadayel appealed to individual humanitarian reasons that a more lenient interpretation of the law would accept.
      Fadayel’s children and grandchildren are Finnish residents. She is in poor health and she says that she has no family in Egypt.
      However, the Finnish Immigration Service and the various court instances justify the rejection and the deportation ruling by saying that according to Finnish legislation, Fadayel is not regarded as part of the nuclear family.
      Moreover, they insist that the individual humanitarian concerns put forward by Fadayel do not constitute sufficient legal grounds for granting her a residence permit.
     
Fadayel attached an updated medical certificate to her new application.
      Yet the Finnish Immigration Service made its decision on the same grounds as before.
      According to the decision, ”the applicant is not a family member, as referred to in Finland’s Aliens Act, of a sponsor living in Finland”.
      Neither can Fadayel be granted a residence permit ”on the basis of continuation of previously established close family life” or ”based on complete dependence on the sponsor residing in Finland”.
      The decision notes further that the refusal of a residence permit is not ”manifestly unreasonable” as referred to in the Aliens Act.
     
According to Finland’s President Tarja Halonen, the deportation order does not square well with the sense of justice of ordinary citizens.
      The cases of Fadayel and of another grandmother facing deportation have prompted widespread discussion and even demonstrations on behalf of the two women.


Previously in HS International Edition:
  Two grandmothers to be deported (9.3.2010)
  Two grandmothers awaiting deportation to be given a second opportunity (25.3.2010)
  Amendment to Aliens Act would open doors to hundreds of grandparents (8.4.2010)

See also:
  Court rejects appeal over negative residence permit of Egyptian grandmother (4.9.2009)

Links:
  Finnish Immigration Service