Business daily Kauppalehti takes aim at a labour practice which calls on employers to prioritise EU and EEA citizens for vacancies—while politicians pay lip service to Finland needing more immigrants to fill labour shortages.
A Loviisa-based fur company wanted to recruit an Afghan tailor living in the town. However it took eight months for Finnish officials to approve the man’s work permit as the job had to be posted on Eures, a European work portal, in addition to Finnish job boards.
Olli Sorainen, a senior ministerial adviser at the Ministry of Economic Affairs and Employment, told the daily that EU citizens must still be given first-priority over applicants from outside the bloc.
The National Coalition Party, the Greens and Swedish People’s Party have said they want to remove work restrictions on non-EU workers ahead of next month’s general elections.
War crimes denial?
Local residents in Berlin are boycotting a bar called Bryggeri Helsinki after it emerged that the Finnish owner chaired an association for Finnish Waffen-SS veterans called "Fraternal Aid," reports Helsingin Sanomat.
The owner’s father enlisted as an SS volunteer at the age of 17.
Germans interviewed by HS said they can’t fathom why someone would want to cherish the memory of Finnish SS soldiers, with locals expressing concern that the bar could become a meeting point for white nationalists.
Residents have been astonished by the group’s website, which they said fetishises and attempts to normalise SS troops. The site includes photos of people posing with SS memorabilia.
An independent investigation published in Finland last month found that Finnish SS soldiers carried out atrocities against Jews and civilians during WWII, with Finns’ involvement far more extensive than previous historical surveys had revealed.
Murderous ticks
Scientists in Finland have discovered a new giant tick species previously unknown in the country, reports tabloid Ilta-Sanomat. Dubbed ‘murderous tick’, the hard-bodied Hyalomma tick can reach two centimeters in length and can sense a human up to nine metres away, making it far more resourceful than its homegrown counterparts, which a Turku researcher described as "slow" and "clumsy."
A tenacious beast, the Hyalomma can follow its prey for up to ten minutes, according to the European Centre for Disease Prevention.
Finland’s harsh winter conditions will, however, knock out the tiny bloodsuckers before they can establish populations, researchers said. The ticks hitchhiked into Finland on migratory birds from the African continent.