According to the Directorate of immigration, a Somali man is to be deported from Finland in the near future. This is the first time when Finland has ordered a Somali citizen to return to Somalia. The 30-year-old man has received several prison sentences in Finland.

   

After arriving in Finland among the first Somali groups in 1991, the man received a temporary residence permit and has lived in this country for 13 years.

   

The Finnish Directorate of Immigration (UVI) resolved to deport the man in August 2001. It is believed that it is safe to send him to Somaliland or Puntland in the northern part of Somalia without risk of inhuman treatment.

   

Somaliland declared its independence in 1991, but it has not been officially recognized.

   

Both the Helsinki Administrative Court and the Finnish Supreme Administrative Court have rejected appeals to change the UVI's decision and it is now being implemented by police.

   

Reportedly Sweden sent the first two persons back to Somalia last year.

The UVI states

that this deportation does not mean that Finland regards Somalia as entirely safe yet. "We will evaluate each deportation case by case", says Esko Repo of the UVI.

Sari Sirva of the Refugee Advice Centre (RAC)

admits that a refugee can be deported on grounds of having committed a crime, provided that the offence carries a sentence of at least one year in prison.

   

She argues, however, that it is not certain that the authorities in Northern Somalia are going to admit a person who is originally from the south.

The Somali man to be deported

is originally from the capital Mogadishu, which is located in Southern Somalia, and according to his own words he would not wish to go to the north.

   

Regardless of the truce made in Somalia in January, the clans have gone on fighting, whereas in Somaliland a parliamentary election is being prepared for later this year.