Anna Knappe, Pekka Niskanen, Timo Piikilä, Jana Ristola
Youth as Refugees, video, website, 2009-2011.

The Youth as Refugees website has been produced together with young people from Afghanistan, the Congo and Somalia, who seek asylum in Finland. The site tells the stories of young refugees, their life in refugee reception centers and attempts at integration into an foreign society .

Videos, which are shown on the site, are an opportunity for the young refugees to get their voices heard outside the refugee reception centers. Some have escaped conflicts in their homeland, some had to flee their countries as a result of the War on Terror. Even though Finland participates in the war in Afghanistan as a part of the NATO military operation, there is no agreement in Finland over its role in the war. Meanwhile, young people fleeing from the cruleties of war have to wait for an unreasonably long time for the asylum decisions to be made by the Finnish authorities. They are secluded in facilities, which are mostly located in the countryside.

www.youthasrefugees.com