Lutheran Church: Finland deports based on insufficient information

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The Church has no legal right nor jurisdiction to offer asylum to people who are to be deported from Finland, Deputy Parliamentary Ombudsman Jussi Pajuoja told St Michael’s Church in Turku earlier this month.
      The decision is the first time that Finland’s Evangelical Lutheran Churches have been reprimanded on asylum issues.
      In reply to the reprimand, the Lutheran Church Council, the Finnish Ecumenical Council, and the reprimanded vicar Jouni Lehikoinen himself declared that they have to intervene, if immigration authorities deport people on the basis of inadequate proceedings.
      “The purpose of the Deputy Parliamentary Ombudsman’s judgement is to rebuke the church and the congregations. However, we do not willfully interpret the Aliens Act, but we want to examine the documents of an asylum-seeker thoroughly and intervene, if the process is inadequate and there is a serious threat to the safety of this person”, Lehikoinen argues.
     
In his judgment the Deputy Parliamentary Ombudsman expressed doubt about a publication titled Kirkko turvapaikkana (”Church as asylum”), including general instructions for the country’s Christian communities regarding asylum-seekers in Finland. The booklet was published by the Finnish Ecumenical Council in 2007.
      In its reply, the Church Council admitted that the booklet in question does not represent the official asylum policy instructions of the Evangelical Lutheran Church of Finland.
      The booklet states: The “Church as asylum” practice is a non-violent way to demand justice in a situation in which the law or its interpretation have turned out to be unjust.
     
“At that stage, new evidence has to be brought in the process. It is the Church’s duty to call for the correct procedures pursued under the rule of law. It is worrying if errors or shortcomings are not dealt with”, stresses Marja-Liisa Laihia, the secretary of missionary and multicultural work at the Church Council.
      Father Heikki Huttunen, the General Secretary of the Finnish Ecumenial Council, calls into question the procedures exercised by interrogators - typically police - during questioning.
      “When an asylum-seeker comes from a persecution situation he or she may be unable to report the whole series of past events right away. Why have the interrogators not been given proper training to help them to get closer to the applicant’s history”, Huttunen questions.
     
The reprimand to St Michael’s Church was related to a case of a male Kurd from Iran, who was given sanctuary by the Parish Council late in the autumn of 2008.
      The Parish Council acted on the basis of a decision made by the vicar Jouni Lehikoinen.
      Regardless of the reprimands, the Lutheran churches intend to act in the same way also in the future. In Huttunen’s view, it could also be appropriate not to have any accurate instructions.
      “I do not believe that we should issue any overly firm instructions. It is adequate that the Parish Councils make the decisions required and the Church as asylum follows along the lines which the congregations have adopted”, Huttunen adds.
      However, the word asylum could be replaced by another term.
      “The judgment puts us in a situation where we will have to use another kind of terminology. The Church cannot grant asylum but it can give sanctuary”, says Lehikoinen.
     
That is what the Deputy Parliamentary Ombudsman also wanted to say, specifies Henrik Åström, a senior secretary to the Ombudsman, speaking on behalf of Jussi Pajuoja who is on holiday.
      “Even if similar activities were to continue, one should use the correct terminology in order to avoid giving an impression that the acting party has more jurisdiction as the law says”, Åström concludes.
     
The Evangelical Lutheran Church of Finland has been mentioned as one of the active asylum-granting churches in Europe. Others include churches in Norway, Sweden, Denmark, Germany, and Italy.
      In some countries such humanitarian work has been criminalised, while in practice, no sanctions have usually been imposed on churches.


Previously in HS International Edition:
  Supreme administrative court suspends deportation of Sudanese asylum seeker (14.9.2007)
  Court blocks forced repatriation of Iranian Kurdish woman (10.9.2007)
  Iranian Kurd protected by church to be deported (4.9.2007)

Links:
  The Evangelical Lutheran Church of Finland

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