Minorities Ombudsman critical of police checks on foreigners' ID documents

Johanna Suurpää

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The Ombudsman for Minorities Johanna Suurpää has expressed concerns that the police will be branding specific groups when they carry out spot-checks to determine residence permits, selecting people on the grounds of the way they look or sound.
      Helsingin Sanomat reported on Tuesday that police in Helsinki and Vantaa intend to step up the inspections of foreigners’ residence permits, with a view to weeding out illegals. Police officers are making spot checks in places where foreigners typically gather, including shopping malls, railway stations, and harbours.
     
In Suurpää’s view this sort of operation “at least comes very close to to the idea of ethnic profiling”, because those subjected to spot-checks are likely to be singled out on the basis of how they look.
      The Council of Europe’s Commission against Racism and Intolerance (ECRI) has declared that ethnic profiling should be outlawed in police operations, or at the very least should be defined precisely on a case-by-case basis.
      “It is problematic if the colour of someone’s skin or some other way in which they look should be grounds for their having to be prepared to be singled out on the street. This brands people”, argues Suurpää.
      She noted that prior to this, those who had been subjected to spot-checks of their status had not been in touch with the Ombudsman’s office, but on Tuesday there were a number of enquiries.
     
“This is a matter that sparks emotions. People are not used to this sort of thing in Finland. We have been asked whether it is legal and whether they are now being put in a adverse position because of the colour of their complexion.”
      “As the police announced, what we are seeing is a new kind of inspections. In that respect it is also a moment for a new kind of consideration of how it is to be performed without branding people."
     
The Ombudsman for Minorities believes that the checks carried out in normal police operations are adequate for the purpose of preventing illegal residence in the country.
      In addition, the checks should be based on some kind of probable cause that the person concerned is here without the necessary residence documents.
      “The control of foreigners in the country must be carried out; it is grounded in the law of the land. But the methods used to date have led effectively enough to a situation where it is not possible to stay in the country, at least not for long periods, without the necessary permits.”
      As reported yesterday, typically a foreigner without a residence permit comes from Africa or from the Middle East.
      Unable to present any identity card, he or she has come into Finland through another Schengen country, without facing border immigration control formalities.
      Membership in the Schengen area means that Finnish border controls are largely powerless to deal with arrivals from another Schengen country.


Previously in HS International Edition:
  Helsinki and Vantaa police spot-checking foreigners without residence permits (11.3.2008)

Links:
  ECRI
  Ombudsman for Minorities

Helsingin Sanomat