Police will monitor foreigners' right of residence next week

Finnish police will launch a campaign next week 9-15 March to monitor the foreigners' right of residence. And they intend to do it within the framework of a traffic control campaign, with which they say they also want to monitor the use of safety belts and the mobile behind the wheel.

The police reported on Friday that, during intensive monitoring of traffic next week, they will also "supervise foreign nationals and whether they have the right to reside in the country."

According to Chief Superintendent Mia Poutanen, "in practice, this means that, when a person's identity is confirmed in relation to a police assignment and that person is found to be a foreign national, their right of residence will be also checked."

In addition to this, police stations also intend to "make inspections of restaurants and other predetermined locations" in search for irregular migrants. In this kind of supervision, operations are based on tips or advance analysis.

"Police control and supervision can never be based merely on actual or implied ethnic group. Instead, it must be based on tips or analysed data," police emphasizes.

An attempt to hide it?

The most striking thing about this issue is the way how it was communicated. On Friday, at 13:47, the National Police Board issued a very long press release entitled: 'Reminder from the Police: Please follow pedestrian crossing rules and give way to pedestrians crossing them. "

Under the headline there was a long text that explains, for example, that drivers should pay special attention to pedestrians and yield to them, in addition to using the seat belt. 

Only after 40 lines of text the note reported the substantial: next week there will be a police operation to find irregular migrants throughout the country.

Was it a coincidence or an attempt to hide it?

The first page of the press release issued by the National Police Board. Photo: Foreigner.fi.

Police say European Union and Schengen rules "oblige police among others to prevent illegal immigration and residence within the Schengen area where there are no internal border controls."

Supervision of aliens in Finland is based on the Aliens Act. According to the act, foreign nationals do not have the unconditional right to reside in the country, and rights of residence are separately defined in the act.

If you want to read the full text of the press release from the National Police Board, you can find it HERE