PM vows continued support to genuine refugees

Prime Minister Juha Sipilä on Monday reiterated his aim to avoid confrontation at any cost and speak together for humanity.

He also pledged to continue with offering cooperation to genuine asylum seekers irrespective of the government’s financial situation.

Referring to the recent terrorist attacks in Barcelona and Turku, he said such acts are utterly deplorable, repulsive, and cowardly and violates all standards of humanity and the basic principles of all religions.

“One of the goals of terrorist attacks is to shock the society and to create and intensify confrontations between different groups. We must make sure that this goal is not achieved,” the prime minister told the annual meeting of heads of foreign missions in Helsinki.

He urged people to show restraint and trust, refraining from drawing far-fetched conclusions based on a single, individual case.

“Several people tried to stop the attacker and help the victims in Turku. These unbelievably brave people came from very different social backgrounds. This underlines that we are all very much in the same boat. We must, all of us together, speak up for humanity, democracy, and the rule of law,” Sipilä was quoted as saying by a written statement issued by the government.

“For me, what took place on Friday – especially the way people at the scene reacted – shows that people have an enormous amount of courage, irrespective of their nationality or origin. Finland is an open, international and forward-looking society. We must not stray from this path, even though it might seem easy to turn inwards after what happened on Friday,” said the prime minister, adding that when a terrorist attack like this happens aiming to shake the society to its very core, we must stand together and thwart such attempts.

He emphasised the necessity for cooperation among all political parties, non-governmental organisations, and religious communities.

“Finland must continue to help individuals and families who are in distress, ravaged by war and persecution. Irrespective of our own difficult financial situation, Finland will continue to help people in crisis hotspots, invest in peace mediation, and accept asylum seekers and refugees,” he said.

Sipilä, however, said that maximum possible measures will be taken to ensure that those who come to Finland are from circumstances of genuine distress. “Where this is not the case, there must be a quick procedure in place for removing from the country those who have arrived here on wrong grounds. We must be able, at an earlier stage, to identify those who try to abuse the asylum system.”