Finnish minister expresses surprise over deportation of Chinese grandpa

Finnish Interior Minister Paivi Rasanen on Friday expressed her surprise over the deportation of a Chinese pensioner who had failed to get a residence permit in Finland.

Finnish daily Helsingin Sanomat reported on Wednesday that He Zhijian, 62, had been invited by his daughter and her Finnish husband to take care of the couple's children.

The couple signed an employment agreement with He, who then tried to apply for an employment-based residence permit but was refused by local authority about a month ago.

The Finnish Immigration Service (Migri) accused him of trying to "circumvent entry regulations concerning family ties with a made-up job."

The Chinese grandpa was imposed a two-year entry ban and escorted to the airport on Wednesday. The result astounded and depressed the Chinese-Finnish family.

Helsingin Sanomat said the assessment was influenced by the fact that He had no qualifications or previous experience in child care and was unable to shed light on his exact working hours in police interviews.

Minister Rasanen said she was surprised that Migri had required him to have child care training and work experience as a grandparent normally has the competence to take care of children dose not need any training.

Rasanen said it is important that foreign grandparents have opportunities to participate in caring their grandchildren living in Finland, reported Helsingin Sanomat on Friday.

She also said that this case raises a question whether Finland need to revise the relevant legislation.

Rasanen said she will leave a request of explaining the case to the Immigration Service at the beginning of next week, and ask the authority to reply by the end of March. Endit