About 200 Ingrian returning migrants deported for committing crimes

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The Directorate of Immigration estimates that it has deported about 200 foreigners with an Ingrian background for crimes committed while in Finland. Ingrians - residents of an area in Russia and Estonia on the south shore of the Gulf of Finland, whose ancestors are Finns who settled there in the 17th century - have been allowed to settle in Finland as "returning migrants" since the early 1990s.
      Most of the deportees are young adults. Some of those who lived in Estonia before moving to Finland have been sent to Russia instead of Estonia after being ordered out of Finland, even though they have no home, relatives, friends, jobs, or a place to study in Russia.
      According to Mikko Puumalainen, the Ombudsman for Minorities, some of those who have been deported have never been in the country that they have been sent to.
     
Such situations have arisen when a child who has moved with his or her family from Estonia to Finland, later commits a crime in Finland.
      The person is deported to Russia instead of Estonia if he or she is formally a citizen of Russia.
      The Directorate of Immigration does not maintain precise figures on how many Ingrian returning migrants have been expelled for criminal activity, but estimates are that about 200 may be affected.
      Olli Koskipirtti of the Directorate of Immigration says that fewer than ten deportations have been implemented this year. He says that Ingrians who have been deported are usually banned from entering Finland for five years.
      Koskipirtti says that typical Ingrian deportees are young adults convicted of a crime involving drugs.
      He adds that although the norm is to deport people to the country in which they are citizens, some have been sent to their long-term country of residence - usually Estonia.
     
Laine Huttunen, project coordinator at Finland’s Ingrian Centre, says that those who are deported have usually lived in Finland for more than five years.
      "Sending those who came from Estonia to Russia is terrible, and should not be done to anybody. The parents of the young people suffer from depression and stress", Huttunen says.
      Finnish human rights lawyer Markku Fredman also calls for an end to deporting Ingrians with an Estonian background to Russia.
      "The idea of the deportations is to send someone who cannot adapt to Finland to where that person came from. However, now people are being separated from their families, and are being deported to a completely foreign social environment", he points out.
      Mikko Puumalainen notes that the deportations do not always solve the problem even from Finland’s point of view. If the young person in question has no ties to the new country, he or she is likely to try to return to Finland one way or another.
      Also, a young person sent out of the country under such circumstances is an easy target for recruitment into organised crime.


Previously in HS International Edition:
  FACTFILE: 22,000 on waiting list to move to Finland (22.4.2005)
  Parliamentary committee aghast at failures of Finnish Ingrian policy (13.2.2002)

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