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Finland: Kurdish family asylum seekers
rejected
2.5.2008
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May 2, 2008
An application for refugee status in Finland filed
by a three-person Kurdish family has been rejected.
The decision was handed down on Thursday. The family
- mother, father and a one-month old baby - are
being sheltered by the Mikael Lutheran congregation
in Turku.
The family tried to apply for refugee status in
Finland after a similar application was turned down
in Sweden.
The family has been in the country for a few months
and the baby was born in Finland.
Finnish authorities turned down the application
because according to the EU's Dublin Agreement,www.ekurd.net
applications for refugee
status and related matters must be processed in the
first Schengen country in which the applications
were made - in this case, Sweden. |
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The Director of the Turku Women's Centre, Raija Ala-Lipasti,
fears that this decision will lead to a chain
reaction in which the family will be turned away in
Sweden and sent back to Kirkuk in Iraq, because
their application has already been rejected in
Sweden once before.
"In practice, such decisions in Finland are put into
practice almost immediately," said Ala-Lipasti.
The family is now considering giving up an
application filed in the baby's name. The family and
the church believe that a new application filed on
behalf of the baby should be processed first in
Finland independently of the previous case.
Ala-Lipasti pointed out that Finnish immigration
legislation places great emphasis on these kinds of
cases which involve the rights and future of under
age children.
The Kurdish family originally sought refugee status
in Sweden for fear of honour violence.
Copyright, respective author or news agency, yle fi
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