Representatives of Lutheran Church criticise nighttime deportation of Kurdish family
Premarital pregnancy brought threat of honour killing in Iraq
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Representatives of the Finnish Evangelical Lutheran Church have criticised Finnish officials for inhumane and inconceivably severe actions toward a family of Kurdish asylum-seekers.
The family was unexpectedly taken away from the Pansio refugee reception centre in Turku at 4 a.m. on Monday.
The two parents and their two-year-old twin daughters were expelled to Greece on the basis of a decision made in October.
“This is a model example of how Finnish officials always operate according to the most severe interpretation of the law that is possible. The expulsion could have been implemented with trust, letting the people prepare for the trip. They are not criminals”, says Heikki Huttunen, Secretary General of the Finnish Ecumenical Council.
“It shows quite a sense of style that a family is forced to leave in the middle of the night right before Christmas.”
The couple had fled the north of Iraq because the mother of the twins had become pregnant before they were married. The woman’s family had threatened her with an honour killing. The twins were born outside Iraq, and the family came to Finland early this year.
Police say that the expulsion was carried out early in the morning so that the family might be put on a scheduled flight from Helsinki.
Usually deportees are allowed to leave the country unaccompanied, but in this case, there was a police escort, lest the family take active action to resist the expulsion.
“The risk assessment was strong. That is why the expulsion was carried out without advance warning”, says Janne Suomi, head of the group investigating aliens’ affairs at the main police station in Turku.
The decision was based on the Dublin Convention, under which asylum seekers can be returned to the first EU country where they arrive. It is likely that the mother of the family first arrived in Greece, because her fingerprints were on file in the Greek Eurodac database.
Janne Suomi notes that under the Dublin agreement, the family could have been sent back already in late October, but they were given ample time to appeal the decision.
The family had asked the St. Michael’s congregation in Turku for help after the decision.
“We criticised the interpretation of the law that the whole family should be sent back on the basis of finding the fingerprints of one family member in Greece”, says Jouni Lehikoinen, Vicar of the St. Michael’s congregation.
The congregation had just begun to examine whether the decision might be changed. According to Lehikoinen, there has been an increase in such requests for help this year.
Heikki Huttunen emphasises that congregations and citizens who help asylum seekers operate openly and in a confidential relationship with officials.
“If police continue these kinds of surprise attacks, it could lead to more uncontrolled civic action. Congregations will not take part in such actions, but perhaps others will”, Huttunen says.
Helsingin Sanomat
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| 23.12.2009 - TODAY |
 Representatives of Lutheran Church criticise nighttime deportation of Kurdish family |
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