Nigerian student deported after 3 years in turmoil

My name is Franklyn Onuorah, I am 22years old from Nigeria. I am a 4th year Mechanical Engineering Student of Savonia university of Applied Sciences Kuopio, and I am currently writing my thesis.

I moved to Finland from Denmark in July 2018 where I applied for my first study residence permit, it took more time than expected so I had to move to Finland because studies and the first year orientation were bound to start soon, also because I had a valid Danish permit which had about 6months till it expired and allowed me, by law, to move to Finland. I moved and transferred my application to the Kuopio service point. This study permit application which was made in April-May when I got the admission took over 6months to process, I finally got the decision in December or January and it was negative. The reason they gave was that the documents I submitted were not reliable enough.

I appealed for the application, it took about a year but the court decided and abolished Migri’s decision and asked that they give another decision (which obviously should be positive) but I was told by the Kuopio Migri service officials to reapply because the application was “made the previous study year and no longer counts.”

I have reapplied 3 times after that and the have all come out negative with the discriminating and racially targeted reasons which was either “that they found my documents unreliable or that they do not believe the origin of my source of funds or that I did not have the required amount throughout the period of my application.”

The Finnish immigration service has falsely label, discriminated, restricted and ruined my opportunities at so many life impacting plans I had when I moved to Finland. I couldn’t travel, go on exchange studies, internships, go for football trials abroad, minor things like getting a bank account, apartment, social security number, driver’s license, student jobs, was a struggle for the past 3 years I have lived, paid tuition and studied in Finland.

This experience really affected my mental health in more ways than I can possibly mention but I tried as much as possible to not let it affect my studies and grades despite the difficult challenges I had to wake up to everyday.

On the 17th of December 2020, I was called by an immigration officer to come to the police station, saying that I have to return to my home country as soon as possible because I had “lived in Finland illegally for years”. I spoke to my study counselor who gave him a call and he called back to say it was a misunderstanding and that he will contact me again in January which he did.

I went to the police station with my girlfriend, I explained that I have a pending appeal at the court but he pressed that the immigration and the administrative court accepted that I be deported. We came to a conclusion that I reapply while I wait for the appeal which I did and got another negative decision which “made” the officer and his supervisors enforce that I leave the country or I get a travel ban for 2years, ignoring the fact that I had studied for 3 years with good grades, paid all my tuitions totalling 7500€, paid taxes, had two internships with Finnish companies and play semi-pro football/soccer for the local team.

I really hope that this movement and cause helps to reform the Finnish immigration system because it really needs a change - from the lack of attending staffs at the service points, to the lack of detailed informations on their website, to the inhumane decisions being given in Finnish regardless of ones understanding of the language, to subjecting the lives and future of immigrant students to people who studied nothing related to the office they sit in. This movement, #ReformMigri, has shown me that I am not alone in this , this is not an individual case and I hope everyone else who has suffered any form of abuse in their situation/ experience finds the strength to talk about it and that we are heard by the right people who will fix and right these wrongs.

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Please sign the petition: bit.ly/ReformMigri