Why are they still in the country if their applications were rejected?
Finnish government dummkopfs responsible for the current situation not available for questioning……
Asylum seekers continue fight against “flawed asylum process”
Asylum seekers from Iraq and Afghanistan have been protesting in central Helsinki against Finland’s tough immigration and asylum policies for more than two weeks. They say there are significant shortcomings in the processing of their applications — and they are still unhappy after a meeting with the Immigration Service on Monday.
Finnish immigration authorities have tightened the rules for considering asylum applications following the arrival of more than 30,000 people seeking refuge from conflict in 2015.
The influx caught the government flat-footed and officials have been trying to address the flood of asylum applications by expediting asylum hearings. In other cases, they have declared countries such as Afghanistan, Somalia and Iraq safe for return, arguing that asylum seekers can return to safe zones.
Iraqi protesters: Stop forced deportations
However the official arguments haven’t been going down well with a group of Iraqi and Afghan asylum seekers who set up camp in central Helsinki to protest what they call the government’s inhumane policies.
Ali Rashied, a spokesman for the Iraqi protesters’ delegation spoke with Yle News about a meeting with Immigration Service Director Jaana Vuorio on Monday.
Yle News: What did you tell them at the meeting?
“We told them they should stop the deportations [of] all refugees by force,” Rashied said on Monday. “If there is somebody who wants to return voluntarily, it’s OK. Now we are defending all of the families, all of the refugees that come here, they got negative decisions without any fair reasons – every decision was unfair.”
Spokesman: Official admitted to shortcomings
The spokesman said that the immigration chief suggested that asylum seekers could seek redress if they felt their applications were not adequately processed.
Rashied: “We didn’t get any good points [from the Immigration Service], only one [point] was clear. Ms. Jaana Vuorio said that every person who feels that their [asylum application] was refused unfairly should go to submitting asylum again here. She also admitted [there was] a low quality of the decisions and about the translators.”
