On Tuesday 27 May 2015, Olli Sademies, a reserve councilor for the Finns Party in Helsinki suggested in a Facebook status update that African men in Finland should be forcibly sterilized so as to curb what he thinks is a high birth rate among immigrants. According to Yle, the politician suggested that the number of children born by immigrants should be limited to a maximum of three, and that in order to limit birth rate, African men should be forcibly sterilized.
Yle reports that the leader of the group of Finns Party councilors in Helsinki condemned the remarks and described the Facebook update as "fascism" and "completely mad." The party's secretary said reserve councilor Sademies' comments are not the party's.
My view
Although Olli Sademies is an obscure politician who, according to Yle received only 462 votes in the parliamentary elections in spring this year and did not make it to parliament, his despicable view on how immigrants should be treated must be taken seriously. Adolf Hitler, an epitome of man's inhumanity to man, was once obscure before his rise to power where they implemented horrific policies, including forced sterilization of people deemed "abnormal", and the extermination of Jews and people from other minority groups. It is therefore important to nip in the bud dangerous views expressed by politicians irrespective of the amount of power they wield at any point in their political career.
The Finns Party "distanced itself" from the racist statement, but distancing itself from the statement is not enough. The party, which already has a reputation as xenophobic, populist, anti-immigration and anti-EU, must do more to get rid of individuals who hold and express horrendous views in its ranks - if the party truly does not share the views or does not benefit from such utterances that seem to energize its base.
It is not a coincidence that many, if not most, racist political scandals in Finland are linked to the Finns Party: from Teuvo Hakkarainen who used the n-word to refer to Africans on his first day in parliament, to Helena Eronen who suggested that foreigners should be forced to wear armbands in order to ease identification by the police, and to James Hirvisaari and Jussi Halla-aho who were convicted by Finnish courts for inciting hatred against an ethnic group. The Finns Party clearly attracts people with racist, xenophobic views. It will take more than slaps on the wrists of offenders and political statements by the party's leaders to clean up the party's sullied reputation.
People of African descent around the world are constantly on the receiving end of racism, discrimination and abusive policies - sometimes sanctioned by state institutions. According to the World Health Organization, in some countries, people belonging to certain certain population groups, including ethnic minorities continue to be sterilized without their full, free and informed consent. Israel for instance admitted in 2013 that it covertly sterilized Eritrean Jews without their consent. Although forced sterilization is required for transgenders in Finland, the inhumane practice is unlikely to be extended to people of African descent or any other minority group without their consent. However, Africans must be vigilant, especially when a politician starts floating the despicable idea around. There is a negative precedent as in the case of Israel.
Of course, the suggestion that Africans have too many children even after moving to Finland is not true. A report by Helsingin Sanomat revealed that immigrants' birth rate falls upon arrival in Finland and is not very different from the birth rate of ethnic Finns. Hence it is both racist and uninformed to suggest that African migrants should be sterilized because they continue to reproduce at the same rate after moving to Finland.
