An Iraqi refugee can be deported for committing several sex crimes during his roughly twenty-year stay in Finland, rules the Supreme Administrative Court of Finland (KHO).
Several convictions of sex offences can constitute sufficient grounds for stripping quota refugees of their refugee status and deporting them to their country of origin, according to the Supreme Administrative Court (KHO).
KHO delivered yesterday its ruling in the case of a man who has been convicted of several sex offences, including aggravated rape and aggravated child sexual abuse, since his arrival in Finland from Saudi Arabia in 1996.
The Iraqi man was stripped of his status as a quota refugee and ordered to leave the country on grounds of his criminal history at the beginning of last year by the Finnish Immigration Service (Migri). The man, however, lodged an appeal against the decision, stating that, if deported, he would be in mortal danger due to his previous political activity and would likely be arrested due to his criminal convictions in Finland.
The man arrived in Finland as a quota refugee with his wife and children in 1996, after having participated in a revolt against the regime of Saddam Hussein in 1991. He was granted a permanent residence permit in 1999.
“The Supreme Administrative Court determined that the circumstances under which [the appellant] had become a refugee have ceased to exist. The change in circumstances has been significant and permanent. [The appellant] is no longer in need of international protection,” the ruling reads.
KHO also ruled that the man was rightfully stripped of his refugee status and ordered to leave the country because he had demonstrated that he poses a risk to the safety of others with his behaviour during the roughly two decades he spent in Finland. The appellant, it added, had despite his long stay also failed to establish important ties with the local community.
His deportation is therefore not in violation of Article 8 of the European Convention on Human Rights, according to the KHO.
KHO thereby upheld an earlier ruling in the case by the Administrative Court of Helsinki.
Aleksi Teivainen – HT Photo: Vesa Moilanen – Lehtikuva Source: Uusi Suomi
