A police officer escorted migrants at a border-crossing point in Virolahti, Eastern Finland, on 15 December 2023. Most Finns would consider human rights violations an acceptable consequence of enforcing a proposed act that would enable the government to temporarily suspend the asylum process at parts of the national border in response to foreign influence, finds a survey commissioned by Helsingin Sanomat. (Heikki Saukkomaa – Lehtikuva)
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THE MAJORITY of Finns view that international human rights violations would be acceptable in the context of enacting the long-debated border security act, indicates a survey commissioned by Helsingin Sanomat.
Helsingin Sanomat on Tuesday revealed that 63 per cent of the survey respondents believe that violating international human rights obligations would be acceptable in the context.
Almost a quarter, or 24 per cent, of respondents estimated that human rights violations are unacceptable, whereas 13 per cent were unable to state one way or the other.
The survey relates to a long-debated and long-prepared government bill that is to be presented to parliament on Friday. The bill would enable the government, in co-operation with the president, to temporary suspend the reception of asylum claims at or in the vicinity of national borders, without providing the migrants who are denied entry with the opportunity to appeal against the decision to a court.
Several legal experts have estimated that the act – also called the pushback and refoulement act by its critics – cannot be enacted even as a limited derogation to the constitution. The Parliament’s Constitutional Law Committee, though, has twice shown a green light to the bill.
The survey found that opinions about the acceptability of human rights violations in the context of the act varied by factors such as gender, income level and political affiliation.
Over 90 per cent of Finns Party and National Coalition supporters viewed that violating international human rights obligations would be an acceptable outcome of enforcing the act, compared with only a quarter of Green League and Left Alliance supporters. Supporters of the Social Democrats and Swedish People’s Party, two parties that could decide the fate of the bill, were divided fairly evenly on the question.
Such violations were regarded as acceptable by 70 per cent of men and 56 per cent of women. Business owners were more receptive to the idea than, for example, students with shares of 75 per cent and 50 per cent, respectively.
The responses also correlated with income levels, with the likelihood of accepting human rights violations increasing with income. While about half of respondents earning less than 20,000 euros a year deemed such violations acceptable, the share rose to 70 per cent among respondents earning over 85,000 euros a year.
Verian collected altogether 1,120 responses for the survey from an online panel on 19–24 June. The results have a margin of error of 2.9 percentage points.
Aleksi Teivainen – HT
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Source: www.helsinkitimes.fi
