Hope For a Better Life Is Not an Acceptable Basis for Asylum

Nigerian Mary told Finnish media that she left Nigeria for Italy at the age of 18 in hopes of a better life. She was promised a good job, but upon arrival, she was forced into street prostitution. Behind this were Nigerian criminal organizations that profit from human trafficking.

In Italy, Mary married a Nigerian man who, according to her, was extremely violent. To escape this situation, she traveled to Finland with her two children a little over a year ago.

However, her asylum application was rejected because Mary had already been granted a residence permit based on asylum in Italy and had not disclosed in her initial application that she was a victim of human trafficking. After the rejection, Mary then revealed her story of forced prostitution.

This did not help, as a month ago, the Finnish Administrative Court decided that Mary could be deported. Following this decision, the immigration police took her and her children from the reception center and transported them to another part of Finland.

Hopefully, Mary's story reaches as many people from developing countries as possible, so they understand that coming to the EU solely in search of a "better life" is not advisable, nor is it wise to leave the country that granted asylum to seek new opportunities in another member state. Instead, in the country that granted asylum – in Mary's case, Italy – victims of crime should contact the local police, whose duty is to apprehend criminals.

Acting as Mary did will only lead to marginalization, where one is at best labeled an asylum shopper, whom no EU country wishes to accept. In Mary’s case, Italy, for some reason, made an exception, even though it is clear that the hope for a better life is not an acceptable basis for asylum.

Previous thoughts on the same topic:
Finland to Tighten Citizenship Requirements Further
Statistics on Sexual Crimes Committed by Immigrants in Finland
Immigration-Specific Violent Crime Increases as Humanitarian Immigration Continues

Immigration-Specific Violent Crime Increases as Humanitarian Immigration Continues

Finland's new National Police Commissioner, Ilkka Koskimäki, told MTV3 that violent crime in Finland has changed. According to him, "the entire landscape of violent crime in Finland is in a state of transition and is changing. Traditionally, the typical homicide from decades ago was a dispute between alcoholics, but those cases have almost disappeared."

Instead – according to him – "we are now seeing more cases of polysubstance abuse, drugs in significant quantities, disputes among criminals, and new phenomena such as street gangs and honor-related violence. The nature of crime is somehow in transition."

The Police Commissioner also mentioned that "the highest number of serious violent crimes, meaning homicides and attempted homicides, occur... in the Tampere and Vantaa areas." However, he did not know why these particular cities were affected, the first being the center of the second-largest urban area in Finland, and the second essentially a suburban town of Helsinki.

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It remains to be seen how violent crime and its distribution among Finnish cities will evolve in the coming years. However, it is clear that one of the key factors in this matter is the number of poorly integrated humanitarian immigrants in Finnish society.

After all, the growing phenomena mentioned by the Police Commissioner, such as street gang and honor-related violence, are almost exclusively associated with this group. Also, the shift in the drug situation is not unrelated to changes in the Finnish population, as the smuggling and trade of illegal substances have long been dominated by immigrants.

Thus, it remains to be seen how the situation will develop in Finland. In any case, people continue to arrive from countries where integration into Western culture is difficult. During the current year alone, the Finnish Immigration Service has thus far received first residence permit applications from, among others, 1 897 Bangladeshis, 1 445 Pakistanis, 1 120 Nigerians, 1 048 Turks, and 923 Iranians. Additionally, there are far more applications for renewals.

Previous thoughts on the same topic:
The UK Prime Minister Took a One-Sided Stance on the Country's Protests
The root causes of racist violence
Immigration issue