EU report: Many Somalis in Finland suffer frequent violence and threats

Finland urged to clarify reasons behind high figures

print this

Finland’s Somali community, or at least a portion of its members, experience more threats, violence, or serious harassment than any other minority in Europe.
      The European Union Agency for Fundamental Rights reported on Friday on the results of a fresh study documenting discrimination against minorities in Europe.
      The study surveyed the crimes that the minorities had fallen victim to, including violence, threats of violence, or serious harassment in the past year. The record numbers came from Somalis interviewed in Finland: 74 instances of threats or actual violence were reported for every 100 Somalis who were interviewed.
      In Italy, 44 cases of threats or violence were reported for every 100 North African immigrants. The corresponding figure for Roma in the Czech republic was 42. For Denmark’s Somalis the figure was 40.
     
However, the high figures do not necessarily mean that being victims to racist crimes would be nearly universal among the Somali population in Finland.
      “It would seem that a certain group within the Somali community falls victim to repeated racist crimes”, says Jo Goodey, Programme Manager of the Research Unit for the European Union Agency for Fundamental Rights.
     
Goodey says that some Somalis interviewed for the study said that they had experienced racist violence or threats up to ten times in the past year. This raises the total number of instances of violence.
      He adds that the large number of events could be connected with certain areas, where many Somalis live, or to the fact that there are relatively few Somalis in proportion to the whole population, which makes them easier targets of hate crimes. On the European scale, it is known that the most frequent victims of racist crimes are young people aged 16 to 24.
      “Finland should study what is happening at the local level.”
      The European Union Agency for Fundamental Rights published a report already last spring, which found that one in three Somalis in the Helsinki region had fallen victim to a racist crime. The proportion was the second highest in Europe.


Links:
  European Union Agency for Fundamental Rights

Helsingin Sanomat