This story angers me for a couple of different reasons. One is the ease in which the media can bend and twist words and meanings totally out of shape, and then reconstruct them to fit their agenda/narrative, leading the untrained reader to the designed conclusion. It’s pure manipulation.
Take for example the borrowing of the nonsensical jargon imported from the U.S. leftist activist community and their media lackeys, ”she was an undocumented immigrant in Finland.” What is an ”undocumented immigrant”? An illegal alien, someone who illegally crosses the border of another country not their own, or overstays their visa. Full stop.
Then there’s the description of the detention center:
Before she was deported Viktoria lived with her mother for about five months in prison-like conditions at Helsinki’s Metsälä aliens’ detention centre.
The inclusion of ”prison-like conditions” into the article by the journalist is pure opinion, meant to draw on the reader’s heart strings. If it’s ”prison-like” then it must be truly unfair to both the mother and the child right? this is nothing more than activist journalism. Then there is this line, from the Chief Inspector for the office of the Minority Ombudsman, Robin Harms:
”[…] called the decision to deport a child to no fixed abode inhuman and illegal. Harms pointed out that deportation decisions should primarily take the child’s welfare into account.”
So by default, what Robin Harms is actually saying, any homeless child that manages to make its way into Finland, must be allowed to stay, including the parents. That is what remains unsaid, and of course the journalist and his/her gatekeeper knows that the average Finn would reject such a notion straight away.
NOTE: Only utopians believe that you can end the suffering of the world by imposing their will upon the good taxpayers who fund the state. The best remedy for any societal ills, is the unleashing of free market capitalism coupled with the bridling of government intrusion of the individual.
Authorities defend deportation of Finland-born 3 year-old; say it was done “by the book”
One year ago Finnish authorities decided to deport a mother and her three-year old Finnish child to Russia, although they had no home there. A reporter with Yle’s Eyewitness (Silminnäkijä) programme found the pair living on the streets of St. Petersburg. Finnish immigration officials said that the entire affair was conducted according to standard operating procedure.
Viktoria Sattarova is now four years old. One year ago when she was just three, she and her mother Naylia ended up living on the streets of St. Petersburg after a decision by Finnish immigration authorities to deport them. Viktoria and her mother have been homeless ever since.
Little Viktoria fit the profile of a child in need of protection by the authorities even when she lived in Finland. She was deported with her mother in spite of the concerns raised by individuals who felt that her mother Naylia wasn’t capable of looking after the infant.
Before she was deported Viktoria lived with her mother for about five months in prison-like conditions at Helsinki’s Metsälä aliens’ detention centre. The mother was housed there because she was an undocumented immigrant in Finland. During that time four separate reports had been filed with child protection officials about Viktoria, however northern Helsinki officials did not see the need for intervention on the grounds of child safety.
The head of the Asylum Unit of the Finnish Immigration Service, Esko Repo, says the decision to deport mother and child was the right one. He says it was made on the basis of information available at a specific point in time.
Deportees shouldn’t be sent to the streets
The Chief Inspector for the office of the Minority Ombudsman, Robin Harms, called the decision to deport a child to no fixed abode inhuman and illegal. Harms pointed out that deportation decisions should primarily take the child’s welfare into account.
The inspector said that officials dealing with deportation cases should determine the conditions to which deportees will be subjected on a case by case basis. He added that there should be bilateral cooperation to ensure that someone will receive deported children and care for them.
Deporting children into inhumane conditions runs counter to the Finnish constitution and also violates the Aliens Act, he added. The Child Protection Act also protects minors who are involved in asylum cases.
According to information obtained by Yle’s in-depth journalism programme Eyewitness (Silminnäkijä), no such investigations were undertaken in Viktoria’s case, and no one was on hand to receive her in Russia. Professionals in the field say that it’s not unusual for Finland to deport minors without making any attempt to contact officials in the receiving country.
Now four years old, Viktoria has lived in a number of temporary abodes during her short life. Her current home is a crisis centre; however her sojourn there will end in just three days. Her mother Naylia said she doesn’t know where next she and Viktoria will find shelter.
Yle’s Eyewitness programme will address the issue of child deportees in its programme segment “Banished Children” Thursday evening at 8.00 pm.
