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Finnish gov't condemns racist demonstration against asylum seekers

Xinhua, September 25, 2015 Adjust font size:

Finnish Government has issued a statement on Friday to condemn the recent racist protest against asylum seekers in Finland.

"The Finnish Government strongly condemns the recent racist protest targeting asylum-seekers arriving in Finland," the statement quoted Prime Minister Joha Sipila, Minister of Foreign Affairs Timo Soini and Minister of Finance Alexander Stubb, as saying.

The government leaders said Finland is an international, open and tolerant country, where a large majority of people accepts immigrants.

The Finnish Government and the authorities are monitoring the situation closely, said the cabinet.

Early Friday morning, a group of 40 demonstrators shouted abuse and threw fireworks, stones and lighted torches, when two busses carrying about 100 asylum seekers drove up to an accommodation center in the southern Finnish town of Lahti.

Some of the protesters even wore the white hood and iconic robes of the Ku Klux Klan, a typical racist organization in the United States.

Finnish Immigration Service said recently that about 14,300 asylum seekers have arrived in Finland this year. Finnish Prime Minister Juha Sipila estimated on Thursday that the number of asylum seekers could reach up to 50,000 by the end of this year. Endit