60°11.294′, 024°58.325′ Behind rainwater chute
Seta criticized the Finnish Immigration Service Migri in 2017 for its negative decisions concerning lgbtiq asylum seekers from the Middle East and Africa. Among the grounds was, for example, that Migri didn’t believe that the persons were gay. Migri has admitted its mistake but the service does not reassess any applications, the applicant has to either file a new application or a complaint regarding the decision.
The interviewers and interpreters need to also understand cultural differences: in some languages there is, for example, no word for “coming out of the closet”. Their conceptions on what gay people should look and sound like also affects the decision making. In many of the disputed cases it is a question of Migri’s assessment of safety in the country of origin. Seta suspects that Migri’s assessment of Russia as a safe country of return for lgbtiq people is not realistic. Some of the asylum seekers and paperless people have ended up working as sex workers in Helsinki due to lack of options.