In this answer, I will share true stories of asylum seekers who have sought for asylum in Finland.
Please note that the stories can be distressing, though I won’t go into graphic details. They have been written down by Finnish volunteers and published by Migrileaks.
All the names of the asylum seekers have been changed in order to protect the people involved.
Jael
Jael’s father had been a member of Saddam Hussein’s party. When Saddam was defeated in 2003, and as a consequence Jael’s extended family was removed from the rest of the tribe. Since then, they had to handle everything alone, without help from others. In 2015, Jael’s cousin had offended a family that was one of the most influential in the region, and fled immediately, leaving behind the rest of the family to face the vengeance of the offended tribe.
Jael only found out that something was wrong when one day he was at home in Basra, southern Iraq, at his grandfather’s house with his family, when armed men started to strafe the house. Everybody panicked, not knowing what was happening.
After the shooting had ceased they packed everything and fled.
First they tried to settle down in Karbala, central Iraq. But the persecution followed them there, and they were not safe there, either. Finally they had to flee to Europe.
Saif
Saif was born into a poor family. He started to work hard since he was young, saving all the money he could, so that he could pay for his studies at the university. At some point, he found someone and got married.
However, their life was very hard due to the persecution by armed militiae. Once they shot the baby of Saif’s relative. The baby was only a few months old. Saif had a photo of the dead baby.
The militiae persecuted Saif, too, and threatened him. Once they succeeded to catch him and torture him, but he managed to escape.
Finally he ended up fleeing the country, hoping to be safe in Finland.
Asad
Asad was a journalist in Afghanistan. He was taking photos and writing stories about weddings, inaugurations of local politicians, those kind of things, dreaming about something bigger.
One day he covered something he shouldn’t have covered, without knowing what it was.
Asad began to receive threats. He knew that some of his journalist friends had received them, too. Many of them had already fled.
His parents begged him to come back home, but he kept receiving phone calls telling him they would kill his family, too. He changed his telephone number, but the threats continued all the same. He considered quitting his job, but his father’s little shop was doing worse than before, since people were scared to be associated with the family. He didn’t want to endanger his parents any more than he already had.
Nights were dangerous in his home town. During the day nothing happened, but when the sun set, Taliban and their supporters could do anything without being punished for it.
At some point, Asad didn’t find any other solution but to flee to Europe.
People need asylum because they have been persecuted, threatened, tortured, raped, forced to marry someone they don’t love or into prostitution, shot at, or wounded. Staying in their country of origin would often be life-threatening.
Sometimes they belong to a persecuted minority. Sometimes they have cooperated with Americans, which has made them suspicious in the eyes of the local militiae. Sometimes their profession (such as singer or alcohol seller) has offended the religious authorities.
Sometimes the reasons why someone ends up persecuted may be arbitrary: knowing the wrong person, being born in the wrong family, being in the wrong place at the wrong moment.
Sometimes they have already lost a son, a daughter, a sister, or a brother.
Sometimes they have only barely managed to escape death.
Footnotes
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