Demonstrations in Finland
The 50 or so demonstrators also shouted abusive slogans at the would-be migrants to the country. One demonstrator wore all white robes, with media reporting his outfit to be similar to the garments worn by the Ku Klux Klan, the white supremacist group that has operated in the United States for well over a century.
“The Finnish government strongly condemns last night’s racist protests against asylum seekers who had entered the country,” the country’s government said in a statement Friday. “Violence or the threat of violence is always to be condemned.”
There was at least one other reception centre in the country where refugees were arriving which was also the scene of violence. In Kouvola, also in the southern region of the country, a petrol bomb was thrown at a refugee bus. There were no injuries reported.
Refugees arrive daily
Thus far in 2015 about 13,000 refugees have entered Finland, most of them from Iraq. Finland is on record as saying they will accept the 2 percent of the 120,000 recent refugees to Europe the European Union said in a vote it must. There are some 500 entering the country daily at this time.
Finland was the only country in the European Union that did not vote on the issue, abstaining. Many in the country are for allowing refugees but, as the violence clearly showed there are Finns who do not want more refugees.
At the demonstration in Lahti there were some 50 Iraqis aboard the bus that was the target of rocks, fireworks and other abuse, some of them children. As in Kouvola, no injuries were reported in Lahti.
