May the blowback continue….
Demonstrators threw stones and launched fireworks at a bus full of asylum seekers arriving at a reception center in Lahti in southern Finland, late on Thursday, Finnish media reported on Friday.
Between 30 and 40 demonstrators, one in a white robe like those worn by the white supremacist Ku Klux Klan in the United States, waved the Finnish flag and shouted abuse at the bus.
Some demonstrators also hurled stones and let off fireworks at the vehicle carrying 40 asylum seekers, including several young children, Finnish television YLE said.
Meanwhile, a petrol bomb was thrown at another reception center in Kouvola, also in southern Finland, police said. No one was known to be hurt in the incidents.
“The Finnish government strongly condemns last night’s racist protests against asylum seekers who had entered the country,” the government said in a statement. “Violence or the threat of violence is always to be condemned.”
Prime Minister Juha Sipila this month offered to take in refugees at his home, a move that attracted international attention but also criticism in Finland.
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