The Finnish Government is responsible for the loss of Mr Fareidun Afsaji’s life.

On the late afternoon of Friday 26th April, Kurdish police forces in the City of Raniye in the Northern city of Kurdistan was alerted by the hotel “Bethoween” about an incident. The police found Mr Afsaji’s strangled body and pronounced him dead at the scene. This tragedy happened in a time that the Finnish government was informed about Mr Afsaji’s deteriorating mental health.  IFIR is very sad about the needless death of Mr Afsaji and sends his family our sincere condolences.

Our representatives and Mr Afsaji’s family warned and informed the Finnish government several times. The Finnish health system registry also had medical records of Mr. Afsaji’s mental health, and were fully aware of his condition. The Finnish government ignored ours and Mr. Afsaji’s family’s warnings, never taking his case seriously. As a result of this, the government’s ignorance cost Mr Afsaji his life. 

If the government had taken the bare minimum responsibility of its citizens that suffer from mental health issues, Mr. Afsaji’s death could have been avoided. The  International Federation of Iraqi refugees condemns the ignorance of the Finnish government in Mr Afsaji’s case which cost him his life and we are demanding a thorough investigation by the Finnish Government and Supreme Court of Finland to find out how his plea for help was ignored.

International Federation of Iraqi Refugees-IFIR

30/4/2019