Cold Haven From A Hot Crisis
"It is more than we expected and we do not deny the challenge. But it is an opportunity in the sense that this will give us a more robust workforce while helping people in need."
"We don't have a problem with this, but we do understand how it could get out of control if it is not managed. We have dealt with it well so far. I am proud of our citizens and of our moderation."
Finland Finance Minister Alexander Stubb
"These people require assistance and I have nothing against them. But I doubt that it is good for Finland. ... Who knows how it will work out in ten or 20 years?"
"While I am not against Muslims, I am against their cultural ideas. How can we possibly agree with them about their attitude toward women? If they want to be part of our lives, they have to understand us."
Raili Vapaavuori, 85, retiree, Helsinki
"I am trying to figure out if they really need help. They have new clothes, the best iPhones. I've seen them take out wads of 100- and 500-euro notes to pay for a cup of tea."
Erja Salmela, 40, housewife, mother, Lapland
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| An Iraqi family with small children waits at a security checkpoint to be taken to a police registration center in Tornio, Finland. The Washington Post |
They come from Pakistan, from Afghanistan and Iraq and Syria, at the end of a trek that has taken them from Turkey through Greece, the Balkans, Germany and Sweden. They didn't stop at any of those places, their final destination was, of all places, Finland. And to reach Finland they went by foot, boat, train and bus, a month-long arduous journey of high expectation.
Once in Finland in Tornio, a truly northern border outpost, they board buses to be taken for formal registration and a series of security checks. Which is when the country's Red Cross takes over. They will be housed and provided for. They will be given assistance to familiarize themselves with their surroundings. To help while their claims for asylum are being processed.
Finland's 5.4-million citizens have looked on as their government has taken in about 30,000 refugee claimants in the past year. Of the total, 14,000 asylum seekers passed through the northern edge of the Gulf of Bothnia, 100 kilometres south of the Arctic Circle, the town of Lapland. This is hugely unusual for Finland, considered to be a racial, culturally homogeneous society. Other European countries like Sweden and Germany do have a history of welcoming foreign immigrants, Finland not.
Predictably, hundreds of Finns presented a human barrier of protest against the entry of so many foreigners to their country, at the Tornio crossing several months ago. To emphasize their distrust of strangers and their unwillingness to have them join them in a country that has been up until the present distant enough so that most people would not want to travel there, stones were thrown and fireworks set.
A civilian street patrol group naming itself the "Soldiers of Odin" was denounced by the government for protesting the presence of Muslims in the wake of the well-publicized New Year's Eve sex assaults that took place in Cologne, Germany, and other cities across Europe. Similar assaults took place as well in the Finnish capital of Helsinki.
Fleeing civil war and the terrorism now prevalent in the Middle East, as well as the violence and oppression in countries like Afghanistan and Pakistan the migrants obviously are in search of a more promising future than what they could imagine would be theirs, remaining in their countries of origin.
"We're happy to adjust. We love the Finns. This country is my country. I will live here in peace", said Ali Ahmed Abbas, a Sunni hairdresser from Baghdad forced to flee Iraq threatened by death on the part of his Shia Iraqi neighbours and now eager to bring his wife and child to Finland at the earliest opportunity.
Labels: Europe, Haven, Middle East, Migrants
posted by Pieface @ Saturday, January 23, 2016
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