STOP THE DEPORTATION ROULETTE
- DISOBEDIENT PROTEST AT THE DIRECTORATE OF IMMIGRATION

Helsinki, Finland

On friday, 21th of february, a group of activists from the No Border network intruded in the office of Directorate of Immigration in Helsinki. Activists demanded an end to the arbitrary deportation decisions of the Directorate. Especially they condemned the recent decision to deport a traumatized 11 year old armenian boy and his family.

The activists spraypainted anti-deportation slogans and made a peaceful sit-in protest, refusing to leave the office until the Directorate would cancel its decision to deport the armenian family.

A week ago on friday, the directorate of immigration ordered the family to be deported. Both the 11 year old son and his mother are suffering from traumatic experiences. The son has been examined in a children's clinic in Oulu and was waiting to get treatment. However, the officials came on thursday morning to take the family from their home and to put the deportation in effect. 32 members of the finnish parliament have appealed to cancel the deportation, but with no results. The decision violated the UN agreement of children's rights.

However, the older son of the family managed to escape from the authorities, and it seems that the authorities haven't been able to carry out the deportation. Finnish No Border group consider this disobedience fully justified and give their full support to the family.

The activists consider it absolutely unacceptable, that the directorate of immigration is able to deport people, of whom many have lived and built their lives in Finland for years. The armenian family had lived in Ruukki for three years, the parents were about to graduate from Raahe vocational college and the older son was studying his second year in Lukio. The fact that the directorate can also deport children who have severe health problems reveals that the directorate has no sense of responsibility.

The group stressed that this deportation is just a single example - most of the deportations are carried out without any kind of publicity. The citizens usually have no possibility to raise political discussion about the legitimation of deportations. "It is time to break this silence and to stop the arbitrary deportation roulette, in which human beings are treated like garbage."

"We demand that the authorities let the family stay in Finland. The decision-making of the directorate must be made open and transparent and subjected to monitoring by the parliament and non-governmental organisations".