Action taken following numerous crimes
Finland has deported a citizen of Somalia for the first time.
Finnish police escorted the man to Hargeisa in Somaliland. He had been deported after a number of criminal convictions in Finland. Most recently he got a prison sentence of slightly over one year. Under Finnish law, foreign residents are subject to deportation if they are sentenced to at least one year in prison for a criminal act.
Hargeisa is the capital of Somaliland, an area in Northern Somalia, which declared independence in 1991. Although the independence of Somaliland has not been recognised by the international community, it has functioned as a de facto independent country for many years.
The man himself did not want to go to Somaliland, saying that he was from Mogadishu in Southern Somalia. He also said that he has a wife and a child in Finland.
The man came to Finland in 1991 among the first group of Somali refugees to enter the country. He lived in Finland for 13 years on temporary residence permits.
The Directorate of Immigration ordered his deportation in August 2001. The deportation was implemented after the Helsinki Administrative Court and the Supreme Administrative Court rejected his appeals.
Another Somali also faces deportation procedures, but the appeal process is still going on.
Somalia has not had a functioning central government since civil war broke out in the country in 1991. Fighting has flared up again in recent weeks, in spite of a cease-fire which took effect in January.
The United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees does not consider Southern Somalia to be a safe place for the return of refugees. However, Somaliland is already planning Parliamentary elections for this year.