Summary: The outgoing government has basically reached its employment target, but voters seem unimpressed.

Finland's unemployment rate has been trending downward throughout the current government's term. It has been on the decline ever since early 2015, just before the current legislative term began.
 Statistics Finland announced on Tuesday that the unemployment rate dipped to 7.4 percent in February, down from last year's 8.6 percent.
 Thus February's jobless rate was 1.2 percentage points lower than a year before. The biggest improvement was for female workers, whose unemployment rate fell by nearly two percentage points to 6.7 percent. Among men, the rate dipped by just 6-tenths of a percentage point to 8.1 percent.
 Over 2.5 million at work
 The unemployment rate for young people (age 15-24) dropped by 1.5 percentage points to 19.7 percent. However less than 10 percent of the age group were actually looking for work as many were studying or doing military service, for instance.
 Altogether last month there were some 200,000 jobseekers in Finland, 33,000 fewer than a year earlier. Meanwhile the number of employed people rose by slightly more. About 34,000 more people were at work, bringing the total of just over 2.5 million in a nation of 5.52 million.
 Employment improves, government support dwindles
 Meanwhile the unemployment trend reached its lowest level in more than a decade. The increase pushed the seasonally adjusted trend of the employment rate to 72.5 percent, exceeding the outgoing centre-right government's target of 72 percent.
 The three-party coalition's success in surpassing this target does not seem to have won over voters, as the two main parties have continued to lose support in recent months, their popularity falling further behind the opposition Social Democrats ahead of next month's parliamentary elections.
 The  most recent Yle poll  shows the SDP with 21.3 percent, followed by the conservative National Coalition Party at 16.2 percent and Prime Minister  Juha Sipilä 's Centre at 14.1 percent. The third cabinet party, the Blue Reform, had less than two percent support.

Unemployment rate continues to decline, especially among women


Summary: Starting April 1, a number of groups can offer "activation training" preventing job seekers' benefits cuts.

Julkisten ja hyvinvointialojen liitto (JHL)

Up until now activation training courses have been limited to those given by employment agencies.
 As of Monday, April 1, unemployed job seekers will have more ways to  fulfill requirements set out by the government’s activation model , which cuts unemployed job seekers' benefits if they do not comply with certain minimum criteria, such as taking courses to help their job search.
 As of Monday, training schemes offered by labour unions, municipalities, employers, and the Finnish National Organization of the Unemployed will meet requirements for 'activation education'.
 Career training
 Several trade unions have announced activation model training programmes this spring, including Service Union United PAM, the Trade Union for the Public and Welfare Sectors JHL as well as the Union of Professional Engineers.
 Government-approved courses may include CV clinics and tips on how to use social media to land a job, according to  Marjaana Maisonlahti  from the Ministry of Social Affairs and Health. Getting a hygiene passport, necessary for working in food services, or learning the basics of entrepreneurship will also fill activation requirements.
 Maisonlahti, however, pointed out that officials will not be vetting the quality of course offered outside of employment agencies. It is up to organisers to evaluate that their training is meaningful for job seekers.
 Critics have pointed out that unemployed residents in rural areas will face more difficulty finding courses at a reasonable distance.
 The Finnish National Organization of the Unemployed has called for abolishing the activation model entirely.
 The Social Democrats, currently drawing the  most voter support  ahead of next month’s  general elections , has vowed to rework the activation model if joining the next government.

Gov loosens requirements for "activation training"


Summary: People with gambling addictions are increasingly staying at home to make bets on the internet, according to a survey.

Kasinot, uhkapelit ja rahapeli- ja vedonlyöntipalvelut

Finland needs to address the growing issue of problem gambling, according to a report about the results from a survey commissioned by the Ministry of Social Affairs and Health.
 The survey aimed to measure the effects of the merger of the three state gaming agencies into a single firm, Veikkaus.
 In 2017, horse betting outfit Fintoto and casino and fruit-machine firm RAY were merged with Veikkaus - which at the time only handled the national lottery.
 The effective result was that it created a gambling monopoly in the country. No other firms or agencies are permitted to offer gambling services in Finland other than Veikkaus.
 There were hopes in some circles that the  merger  - which received approval from the EU - would help to limit the  damaging effects  of gambling.
 While the number of male problem gamblers has declined somewhat since the merger, the difficulties of serious problem gamblers appear to have deepened even further.
 Story continues after photo.
 File photo of person marking a Veikkaus lottery card. Ismo Pekkarinen / AOP
 "It was definitely optimistic to think that something would have changed. Gambling has the same cultural and social functions for Finnish residents," social scientist  Matilda Hellman  said, adding that government policy plays an important role in regulating gambling.
 "The fusion of Fintoto, Ray and Veikkaus hasn't particularly helped to regulate the sector," Hellman said.
 In spite of the apparent decrease in men with gambling problems, there are other concerns, she said.
 "The survey found that the situation for people with serious gambling addictions seems to have intensified and worsened," Hellman said.
 In lieu of heading to the local supermarket, bar or casino, people seem to be increasingly gambling alone at home on the internet, according to the survey.
 Earlier this year, Veikkaus announced plans to cut up to 400 jobs and that it was considering a phase-out of all its  table gaming operations in restaurants . The firm said the job cuts are needed due to intensifying online competition and business shifting onto digital channels.
 No conclusions yet
 Hellman said it's difficult to determine how the monopoly arrangement has affected the situation just two years since it was established, and also not comparable to Finland's alcohol monopoly Alko, which has been in place for 90 years.
 "There's a big appetite for gambling in Finland. We need to figure out how to address this politically. We're only in the starting blocks when it comes to the discussion about gaming policy," Hellman said.
 Just over a quarter of the survey's respondents, some 27 percent, said they thought Veikkaus markets its gambling services with too many ads, an increase of 10 percent compared to a similar survey carried out last year.
 However the majority of those surveyed, 62 percent, said they were satisfied with the amount of ads from the gambling monopoly.
 Some 16 percent said that they felt prompted to gamble more by advertisements, while 65 percent said ads do not affect how much they gamble.
 Citizens' initiative
 Veikkaus' profits are distributed via number of government ministries and channelled to various public organisations and charities. Many of those groups rely on the funding, according to Hellman.
 She said the public's faith in Veikkaus as a company is generally strong, but said it's criticised by some for making it too easy to gamble, and pointed to a citizens' initiative recently started calling for the removal of video gambling machines from grocery stores and petrol stations across the country.
 The  initiative , (in Finnish) has garnered more than 7,400 signatures of support since it started less than a week ago.
 The survey on gambling was commissioned by the Ministry of Social Affairs and Health and carried out by the Institute for Health and Welfare (THL) in cooperation with Statistics Finland, the gambling problem prevention group Peliklinikka and Helsinki University.
 The survey queried 2,624 people over the age of 18 from across the regions of Uusimaa, Pirkanmaa and Kymenlaakso.

Problem gamblers not helped by Veikkaus gambling monopoly, survey finds


Summary: The 22-year old perpetrator met his 14-year old victim via the social media app Snapchat.

Oulu District Court sentenced 22-year-old  Abdullhadi Barhum  to two-and-a-half years in prison after convicting him of rape and aggravated sexual exploitation of a 14-year-old girl.
 Barhum and his underage victim did not know each other before the offences took place last autumn in Oulu, on Finland's west coast.
 According to court testimony, the victim had asked for someone on the social media app Snapchat to bring her cigarettes and that Barhum responded to her request.
 According to testimony, Barhum later provided the girl with alcohol and had been aware the girl was 14-years-old.
 He met his victim two times in Oulu's Tuira neighbourhood and the rape took place outdoors during their second meeting last November.
 Second case
 That same weekend another suspected child sex abuse case came to the attention of authorities, but the incidents were not related and the suspects did not know each other, according to police.
 Last week a 44-year-old man was sentenced to a  three-year eight-month prison term  after being found guilty of the aggravated child sexual abuse and aggravated rape of a 10-year-old girl. Those offences were found to have occurred between summer and autumn last year.
 Tuesday's verdict was the second of  several cases of suspected child sex abuse  under investigation in Oulu that came to light late last year.
 In some of those suspected cases the perpetrators had known their victims in advance of the alleged offences, while in other cases contact had been established via the internet and social media. According to investigators the suspects in those cases include Finnish nationals as well as foreigners.

Man receives 2.5-year jail sentence in second Oulu child sex abuse case


Summary: It's now down to individual EU countries to decide whether to stay on standard or daylight saving time. Last month the Finnish government chose standard time.

Kansainväliset organisaatiot ja sopimukset

The elimination of biannual clock-changing rituals across the EU has taken a step forward.
 On Tuesday the European Parliament voted to eliminate the practice of changing the clocks by an hour back and forth twice a year across the EU. MEPs approved the measure by a margin of 410 yes votes, 192 no votes and 51 abstentions. All 28 EU states currently change their clocks an hour ahead and back twice a year.
 The EU Parliament endorsed a proposal by the European Commission to end the biannual clock change, but pushed forward the deadline from this year to 2021.
 The matter is not settled however, as each EU country needs to decide whether to remain on daylight saving time (during spring and summer) and standard time (from mid-autumn until early spring).
 Consensus needed
 Last month the Finnish government said it  supports scrapping seasonal daylight saving  and to permanently stay on standard time. A  citizens' initiative  on the matter was sent to Finnish lawmakers in 2017.
 In order to avoid problems and market conflicts, the EU Parliament said it wants individual countries to coordinate their decisions on their changes with each other.
 Going forward - if and when member states come to agreement - countries that decide to stay on daylight saving time will turn their clocks forward an hour for the final time in March 2021 and those that choose to remain on standard time will turn their clocks back an hour for the last time in October 2021.
 Last year, following requests from the public, the EU Parliament and some member states, the EU Commission decided to examine the issue of eliminating the practice of daylight saving time changes.

EU Parliament votes to end seasonal clock changes


Summary: Finland is no stranger to election compasses – they’ve been around for a couple of decades and many voters rely on them.

Yle launched its election compass on 14 March to help voters figure out which candidates’ views align most closely with their own ahead of  parliamentary elections due on 14 April . Altogether 2,200 candidates from all of the country’s electoral districts responded to the claims posed in the election compass.
 Each candidate addressed 25 claims that were national in scope, while an additional five statements focused on local election district issues. Yle has estimated that the candidate response rate in the election compass was about 90 percent.
 How the compass works
 Yle’s election compass  is essentially a simple algorithm or computer programme that asks candidates and users to answer certain questions. It then compares the responses to find a candidate or candidates whose answers are closest to the responses the user provided.
 This means that one of the most important requirements for the election compass is that the statements or claims being answered must be straightforward and unambiguous. This ensures that the candidates and the users understand the claims in the same way.
 Both candidates and users are asked to respond to 30 statements in the compass, following which the tool’s algorithm provides a list of the candidates with similar views on the issues raised.
 The results page provides a wealth of information, including what Parliament would look like based on the user's choices. Users can also opt to browse through the list of candidates to find out more about them. In the case of sitting MPs, the compass provides information about their work in Parliament.
 How the themes were selected
 "We've tried to select themes that are known to be important to voters who are most likely to use the election compass. We also know that the compass is especially important to young people and young adults: we're aiming to serve them even better!" said Yle's election web producer  Ville Seuri.
 As background for the election compass statements, Yle used a previous survey it had conducted on the fears and hopes of Finnish residents. The poll indicated that teens and young adults were worried about climate change. Developers of the tool also consulted youth and political researchers as well as other experts.
 The results of the election compass provide users with useful information about themselves. It shows how their answers compare to those of other users and helps them to dig deeper into their own attitudes.
 Election compasses popular in Finland
 Yle has however, ensured that responses contributed by users are not identifiable, meaning that they cannot be linked to any unique information, such as a computer’s IP address or an Yle login.
 Election compasses are nothing new to Finland – they’ve been around for a couple of decades already and many voters rely on them, according Seuri.
 Young voters in particular are keen on the service. Research conducted by the Municipal Development Foundation KAKS (in Finnish) into the 2017 municipal elections found that the most important sources of information for under-35-year-olds were social media and the Yle election compass.
 Some voters in that study told researcher  Sami Borg  of Tampere University that they cast their ballots on the basis of recommendations generated by the service.

Confused about Yle’s election compass? Read this handy quick guide


Summary: Finland switches to summer time overnight, officially at 3 am Sunday. Officials are pushing to keep standard time year round starting in 2021.

Hands on Finnish clocks will be moved one hour forward overnight as the country switches to daylight saving time ahead of spring. The official transition takes place at 3 am on Sunday, 31 March.
 The country won't return back to standard time until late October, when clocks will again be set one hour later.
 Finland has followed the twice-yearly custom of switching clocks since 1981. In Europe, the practice was adopted one year earlier, in 1980.
 MEPs decide to end clock fiddling
 Members of the European Parliament  decided this week to scrap daylight saving time starting in 2021 . The final directive still needs to be approved by the EU Council of Ministers. Finland is hoping this decision will be reached before the year is out, while it is still in possession of the rotating EU Presidency.
 It is now down to the individual EU countries to decide whether to stay on standard or daylight saving time permanently. The countries have until the end of the year to make their decision, if not sooner.
 "There are now three time zones in use in the EU and in Finland's view, this should be the maximum amount moving forward as well. We don't want a Europe that is fragmented into several time zones," says  Maria Rautavirta , a specialist at the transport and communications ministry.
 Finland has already submitted its preference in early February, when the EU ministerial committee of the government told the EU that it would prefer to stay on  standard time .
 Despite indicating this early preference, the Finnish authorities say they do not want to rule out other options if it will help the progress of negotiations.
 "We'll naturally monitor what our neighbouring countries and the larger nations of the EU decide for their time zones," Rautavirta says.
 At present, the Baltic countries, Greece, Romania and Bulgaria share the same time zone as Finland. Sweden joins the countries in central Europe in a zone that is one hour behind Finland, and Britain, Ireland and Portugal are among the countries that are two hours behind.
 Permanent standard time starting in 2021?
 If the EU council approves the directive still this year, Finland can start preparing its own legislation on a permanent time zone already in early 2020.
 As things look now, Finland will adopt standard time year round starting in 2021. A  poll from late 2018  found that over half of Finnish residents felt that this alternative, also known as winter time, was a better option.
 If the legislation follows the normal schedule, the Finnish Parliament would decide on the new permanent time zone in late 2020 and the new law would come into force in 2021.

Finland turns clocks one hour forward tonight, for possibly second-to-last time


Summary: The disruptions to traffic were announced by national rail service VR late Monday morning, and only a few trains appeared to running on schedule.

Many train routes around Helsinki - including local and long distance trains - came to a standstill on Monday morning, due to technical issues, according to Traffic Management Finland, the firm which manages the trains operated by national rail service VR.
 Traffic Management Finland said passengers should be prepared for further cancellations.
 The firm said it was not sure when trains would begin running, saying that it would provide more information as it becomes available.
 Passengers and others are advised to check  VR's website  for updates.

Many trains around Helsinki come to standstill


Summary: Wednesday's press look at language teaching for first-graders, deaths caused by summer heat and spring's arrival.

Daily  Helsingin Sanomat  reports that all first-graders in Finland will start learning a foreign language in the autumn. By introducing children to foreign languages at an earlier age, the Finnish National Agency for Education wants to make language teaching and choices more equal across the country, HS writes. Currently, teaching of the first foreign language, so called A1-language, begins in third grade.
 About 100 municipalities already took part in a two-year pilot project which was aimed to develop and increase foreign language instruction in daycares, pre- and primary schools.
 "This project has been very successful," says the education ministry's senior ministerial adviser  Minna Polvinen .
 "According to the feedback we’ve received, this is exactly what language teaching needs," she adds.
 One objective of the project has been to diversify language studies, so that as many children as possible would study another language besides English, HS says.
 At the moment, 80 percent of pupils in basic education (grades 1-9) study one foreign language, usually English, in addition to Swedish or Finnish – the country's two official languages.
 The education agency considers the narrowing of language skills among Finns a worrisome trend, according to the paper.
 As a result, besides English, schools in Tampere provide instruction in Swedish, German, French, Russian and Chinese. On top of these, schoolkids in Helsinki can choose Northern Sámi or Estonian, which are both offered in one school.
 Heat wave deaths
 The extended heat wave last summer raised mortality rates among elderly people, writes daily  Karjalainen . Based on a study by the National Institute for Health and Welfare THL, the heatwave during July and August of last year caused the premature deaths of 380 people.
 The daily mortality rate among people aged 65 and over increased by 14 percent, the paper says.
 A long period of high temperatures poses risks to people suffering from heart and circulatory diseases, respiratory diseases, neurological disorders or mental health problems, says  Virpi Kollanus  from THL.
 According to her, mortality increases among older people regardless of whether they live at home or at senior care centres.
 “We recommend that senior care homes improve their preparedness for heat waves,” Kollanus adds.
 The temperature inside senior care homes should not rise beyond 30 degrees Celsius, according to the paper.
 According to figures from the Finnish Meteorological Institute, last summer was two full degrees warmer than the average. In southern Finland, there were 40 days when temperatures exceeded 25 degrees.
 Weekend warmth
 It might not be a heatwave quite yet, but it seems spring is finally on its way. Tabloid  Iltalehti  writes that temperatures in southern and central Finland could top 10 degrees on Friday and Saturday.
 ”Friday in particularly will be fairly dry and sunny aross the country, with the exception of Lapland. In the south, Saturday is a good day to go outdoors as well, with temperatures between five and nine degrees,” says meteorologist  Riikka Lahtinen  from Foreca.
 But strong winds will make the weather feel a bit colder, she notes.
 According to IL, average daytime temperatures in the south have risen above zero degrees, which means that spring has officially stared.
 “Early spring flowers like coltsfoot and hepatica have already been spotted,” Lahtinen says.
 However, nights are likely to remain cold, with temperatures below zero, at least on Wednesday. In Lapland, it could be as cold as -15 degrees, Lahtinen adds.

Wednesday's papers: Foreign language teaching, heat wave deaths and spring feeling


Summary: More "new Finns" than ever are eligible to vote for the first time in April’s general election. Here's everything you need to know about the vote.

In the 14 April general election, voters will select 200 representatives to the Finnish Parliament, which is responsible for crafting the country’s laws. The members of parliament, or MPs, are elected from 13 electoral districts and are also responsible for representing the interests of their constituents.
 Election day
 Election day is on Sunday, 14 April 2019, but those who want to avoid queues can cast their ballot during advance voting, which runs from 3-9 April in Finland and from 3-6 April overseas.
 Citizens can vote at any advance voting station in Finland or abroad. For the first time this year, electors who are casting their votes abroad will also be able to do so via a mail-in ballot.
 How to vote
 In March, Finnish citizens who have turned 18 by April 14 receive a poll card in the mail indicating the polling station they should go to on election day. The poll card also specifies neighbourhood advance voting locations, usually town halls, libraries and post offices. Polling stations are open from 9.00am to 8.00pm.
 Finland is divided into 13 electoral districts, each with its own candidates. Voters can only choose from candidates belonging to their own district. On election day, voters may only vote at their local polling station.
 At the polling station
 Whether voting in advance or on April 14, you need to bring a valid ID to the polling station, for example a passport, police-issued ID card, driving license or Kela card equipped with a photo.
 Once at the polling station, present your ID and get a ballot paper from the clerk. Go to a polling booth, write the number of the candidate you want to vote for in the circle, and fold it over. Do not write anything else or make any other markings on your ballot paper, as these could invalidate it.
 Now you can head to the polling clerk next to the ballot box. They will stamp your folded ballot paper and show you where to place it in the ballot box.
 Who are the candidates?
 All the candidates running for Parliament will be listed on the website of the Ministry of Justice from mid-March. The ministry is responsible for administering elections in Finland.
 In addition to meeting candidates on the campaign trail, voters can explore parties’ and candidates’ positions online and through social media.
 Yle has launched  an English-language version of its election compass tool  to help voters assess how their views align with those of candidates running for office. For more on what some of the candidates and their parties stand for,  check out Yle News' election debate  that featured the nine major parties represented in Parliament. In the run-up to the election, Yle News’ weekly podcast All Points North has delved into the platforms and promises of Finland’s eight main political parties.
 Election results
 On election day electoral committees post advance voting results after polling stations close at 8pm. Preliminary results for the entire election are usually reported around 10pm.
 Yle News will provide up-to-date coverage on the parliamentary election as well as on Twitter and Facebook.
 New Finns - a diverse group with a growing voice
 A record number of people -- 12,200 -- were granted Finnish citizenship in 2017, making them eligible to vote in this general election for the first time. The number of so-called  "new Finns"  has risen considerably since the last general election in 2015 when 8,260 were able to cast their ballot for the first time. People from Russia, Somalia, Iraq and Estonia make up the largest group of new citizens.
 New Finns' voting enthusiasm has been lower than among the rest of the population. In the municipal elections of 2017, where all residents were eligible to vote, just 20 percent of non-Finnish citizens voted, compared to overall turnout of 58 percent.
 In the last general election in 2015, some 70 percent of Finnish citizens in Finland voted, while 10 percent of Finns residing abroad cast their ballots. Voter turnout among overseas citizens could significantly rise this spring as 250,000 Finns living overseas will be able to vote via post for the first time.
 The Ministry of Justice provides information on the elections in Finnish, Swedish, English and 19 other languages.
 Referendum on welfare state’s future?
 This general election will likely gauge the nation’s temperature on austerity reforms ushered in by Prime Minister  Juha Sipilä ’s centre-right government, which promised to pull Finland out of an economic downturn. In addition to Sipilä’s Centre Party, the government included the anti-immigrant Finns Party and the conservative National Coalition Party. The election of immigration hardliner Jussi Halla-aho to lead the Finns Party to see a more moderate splinter group, Blue Reform, replace it in government.
 Sipilä’s term will be remembered for scaling back funding for the social welfare state, including education during a time of global economic growth. The government’s stick-and-carrot based ‘activation model’ which tightened conditions for unemployment benefits proved highly contentious, with the opposition Social Democrats and Left Alliance promising to abolish the measure if elected to the next government. Its failed attempt to overhaul social and health care services saw  the government quit office in early March , although it will stay on in a caretaker capacity until the election.

Yle News explains: Voting in Finland’s parliamentary election


Summary: Finland's Supreme Administrative Court ruled that the Tax Administration's request for the data was insufficiently specific.

Kansainvälinen tutkivien journalistien yhteenliittymä (ICIJ)

Finland's Supreme Administrative Court has ruled that public broadcaster Yle and its journalists have the right to refuse to hand over to the Tax Administration materials from its Panama Papers investigation.
 In 2016 Finnish tax authorities ordered public broadcaster Yle to hand over documents leaked from the Panama law firm Mossack Fonseca. The tax office threatened to secure  search warrants  to raid Yle’s premises and journalists’ homes.
 The Panama Papers is a trove of more than 11 million documents uncovered in 2016, which outlined years of work by a Panamanian law firm to set up shell firms in tax havens for wealthy clients.
 The documents were originally handed over to the German newspaper Süddeutsche Zeitung by an anonymous source.
 The International Consortium of Investigative Journalists (ICIJ) later joined in analysing the vast data dump. Altogether some 400 journalists from more than 100 media organisations in over 80 countries worked on the project.
 As part of this unprecedented effort, two Yle reporters were given access to the documents. They found that a number of Finnish individuals and firms were involved in setting up and taking advantage of offshore tax havens.
 In 2017 Helsinki Administrative Court ruled that the  tax administration could not force  Yle to hand over the materials.
 Supreme Administrative Court's decision
 The Tax Administration appealed that decision, and took its case to the Supreme Administrative Court.
 However, the court rejected the tax office's appeal on Wednesday, finding it had not sufficiently detailed connections between its request for data and suspected tax law violations.
 The basis of the Tax Administration's request for access to the data was to carry out a comparative data audit. Such an audit meant that tax authorities would have collected specific comparative data on companies with connections to corporations that were uncovered in the Panama Papers probe.
 The tax administration would have used that data to assess the tax compliance of other individuals and to determine whether they have been appropriately taxed.
 The Supreme Administrative Court ruled that comparative data audits need to examine accounting records or related data which are central to regular tax audits.
 The court ruled that the Tax Administration's request did not meet those requirements.

Yle journalists retain right to keep Panama Papers data from Finnish tax man


Summary: Voters would most like to see the Greens' Pekka Haavisto take over as prime minister, according to two different surveys.

A survey conducted by leading circulation daily Helsingin Sanomat suggests that  Greens chair  Pekka Haavisto  has emerged as the lead candidate to be Finland’s next prime minister after parliamentary elections due in April.
 Haavisto managed to force a second round in Finland's 2012 presidential election, but lost to the National Coalition Party candidate  Sauli Niinistö . Niinistö later  crushed a second challenge from Haavisto  and others in the 2018 presidential poll.
 Altogether 22 percent of survey respondents said they’d like to see Haavisto take office after next month’s parliamentary elections. The second-most popular candidate for the post was the National Coalition Party’s  Petteri Orpo , with 16 percent backing from interviewees.
 Next in line in third and fourth position with 15 and 14 percent backing respectively were the Social Democratic Party’s  Antti Rinne  and the Centre Party’s  Juha Sipilä .
 In spite of voters’ preferences for the next prime minister, party support polls show that  the next premier is likely to come from the Social Democratic Party or the National Coalition Party .
 Market research firm Kantar TNS interviewed 1,000 respondents for the HS poll in March and the margin of error was +/- three percentage points.
 Meanwhile, in a separate poll by the Lännen Media newspaper consortium, respondents also placed Haavisto ahead of other contenders in the race for the premiership. That survey, which was conducted by pollster Taloustutkimus for the newspaper group, also put the NCP’s Orpo in second place.
 Voters want the SDP and Greens in government
 Respondents to yet another survey indicated that the opposition parties the SDP and the Greens are favourites to form the backbone of the next government.
 This time around, the agricultural lobby-backed paper Maaseudun Tulevaisuus commissioned Kantar TNS to sound public opinion on the three parties voters would like to see in government. The pollster questioned just over 1,000 voters on their opinions in mid-March.
 Respondents placed the NCP in third place, narrowly ahead of Juha Sipilä’s Centre. Drilling down into the poll data indicated that while the Centre still has strong support in rural areas, it has lost its top ranking among these voters to the SDP.
 The Foundation for Municipal Development KAKS also tested voters’ temperature on the issue of which parties they’d like to see in government.
 According to that survey, nearly half of respondents said they’d like to see the SDP in government, followed by the Greens with 35 percent backing. Both the NCP and the Centre trailed with just over 30 percent support for forming the next administration.

Greens chair Haavisto a favourite for Finland’s next PM, polls show


Summary: Well-known pro-Russian activist Johan Bäckman and three others have been added to a list of sanctioned individuals.

Venäjän strategisten tutkimusten instituutti (RISI)

Ukraine has added four Finnish citizens to its sanctioned persons list, reports news consortium Lännen Media. According to LM,  Johan   Bäckman ,  Janus Putkonen ,  Jon Hellevig  and  Jarmo Ekman  are not permitted to enter the country or make use of any property or capital they may hold in Ukraine for the next three years.
 The four men acted as election observers in Donetsk People's Republic (DPR) – a state set up by Russia in East Ukraine – in November. Russian media portrayed the men as "international election observers sent by Finland".
 According to LM, Finland did not in fact, send election monitoring teams to DPR and as an EU member state, condemned the elections by Russia-backed separatists as illegal.
 Familiar names
 The four men are well-known for their pro-Russian positions. Bäckman has enjoyed a high degree of visibility in Russian media as an expert on Russian child custody rights abroad. He is also listed as the Northern Europe representative for the Russian Institute for Strategic Studies (RISS), a Kremlin-funded research group that is believed to have links to Russian intelligence services.
 In October last year, Bäckman, anti-immigrant agitator  Ilja Janitskin  and a third person were ordered to  pay 200,000 euros in damages to harassment victims  after they were found guilty of  harassing and defaming Yle journalist Jessikka Aro  and inciting others to defame her.
 Meanwhile, Jarmo Ekman acts as the secretary of the Donetsk People’s Republic’s official representative in Finland, where Putkonen and Bäckman are also active. Ekman was previously involved in  Paavo Väyrynen's Citizens' Party.
 Putkonen  has lived in Donetsk since 2015 , helping out the republic’s media operations there.
 In 2017, Jon Hellevig received a 60-day suspended sentence for illegal threats against and defamation of opera singer  Karita Mattila , as reported by daily Helsingin Sanomat.

Daily: Ukraine imposes sanctions on pro-Russian Finns


Summary: Same-sex marriage is legal in Finland, but the Lutheran Church does not allow wedding ceremonies in churches.

A survey of 534 priests in Finland shows that 57 percent would marry homosexual couples if the Evangelical Lutheran Church allowed it.
 According to the survey by the University of Eastern Finland, one in five priests said they would perform same-sex marriage rites now, even though it is against the church’s official position.
 By contrast, about 30 percent of respondents said they would not officiate at gay weddings under any circumstances.
 In addition, about a quarter of priests said they have faced discrimination or felt pressure because of their opinions on the matter. Many respondents said they were concerned that the issue of gay marriage would cause considerable tension and controversy within the church.
 In Finland, same-sex marriage has been legal since March 2017.
 Last year, the church reprimanded six clerics for officiating at gay weddings. The previous year, the  Helsinki diocese also issued a severe reprimand to a priest  for the practice.

Survey: Most priests would marry gay couples if permitted by church


Summary: The victims were all boys aged between six and 15, whose parents had allowed them to spend time with acquaintances they believed were trustworthy.

The National Bureau of Investigation suspects five Finnish citizens of involvement in an extensive child sexual abuse network. Police believe that the suspects engaged in producing material depicting violent child sexual abuse in Finland that was shared live online to other members of the network abroad.
 "A special feature [of the case] has been violence and child harm, which has played a central role [in the material]. Although we are investigating sexual offences, this is a case of violence, its glorification and receiving sexual gratification from it," said lead investigator  Sanna Springare .
 Springare described the ringleader of the group as a man who had held a prominent position in society. All five suspects are men.
 Police suspect that the case involves six victims who were all boys ranging in age from six to 15 years old at the time the suspected offences occurred. The suspected crimes were believed to have been committed between 2004 and 2018 and police believe that some of the victims knew each other.
 Four of the Finnish suspects had been in police custody at some point, but that is no longer the case. According to the NBI, the men were released due to reasons having to do with the investigation as well as the length of the probe. In the case of the ringleader, his detention had lasted around 12 months.
 Police pointed to an exceptional amount of evidence seized in connection with the case. They now have in their possession 138 electronic devices and the ringleader alone had been holding more than 400 hours of illegal video material. Altogether law enforcement officials had seized 96 terabytes of material. NBI investigators speculated that scope of the material confiscated was equivalent to more than 30 million photos, assuming that the size of an average photo is around three megabytes.
 However most of the material seized was in video, with images of the Finnish victims among the files.
 Parents trusted suspects with their kids
 Police are investigating the cases as aggravated child sexual abuse, aggravated rape, aggravated dissemination of indecent images of children, illegal possession of many such images, drug offences and viewing content featuring indecent images of children.
 The total number of charges under consideration is 22, but they involve 70 offences altogether. Investigators noted however that the statute of limitations on some of the offences has expired.
 "In its mildest form, the abuse in Finland occurred as showing adult pornography to children. In the worst cases it involved the rape of children for 10 hours while they were drugged with narcotics," Springare explained.
 Investigators said that in some cases the young victims had been drugged with amphetamines. "They [the victims] were found through their [the suspects'] ties to various acquaintances," Springare explained.
 "The suspects were considered to be very reliable. In this way, parents for example ventured to leave their children in the hands of these people who were later revealed to be criminal suspects," she added.
 The precise nature of the offences has to some extent been sealed. According to the NBI some of the suspected crimes took place in a very small municipality so the location of the place has also been kept under wraps to protect the identity of the victims.
 Police have so far completed their investigation and referred the cases for consideration of charges.
 Content live-streamed from Finland
 The investigations probed an extensive child pornography ring that involved the production of live streamed content in Finland that was then followed in 17 countries. According to the NBI the countries involved were European and included other western states.
 Springare said that members of the network have received video content and also produced material for the group. Some of the material streamed to Finland was extremely violent in nature and involved so-called snuff films, in which the victims were killed. Some of the photo and video material contained features of devil worship, Nazism and various fetishes, investigators added.
 The lead investigator said that police have not sought the extradition of suspects from other countries to Finland. "Sentencing in many other countries is tougher than in Finland, so we hope that the target countries will do their part," Springare noted.
 None of the victims had alerted the authorities about the abuse they suffered. Police tracked down the victims and suspects on the basis of the material that came their way. Finnish authorities launched an investigation into the suspected offences in 2017 after receiving a tip-off from foreign officials.
 The NBI alone had assigned seven investigators to work on the case almost full-time.

Police suspect Finns of role in violent international child porn ring


Summary: "This [ruling] shows that berry pickers in Finland have no legal protections," a lawyer for the group said.

Finland’s Supreme Court has rejected a group of Thai berry pickers’ application to appeal previous verdicts in cases concerning their rights and compensation.
 The highest court’s decision marks the end of  a long-running legal dispute that began in 2013  and involved a group of 15 berry pickers and their former employer, a berry-picking firm based in Sotkamo, eastern Finland.
 Previously, both a district and an appellate court had rejected the Thai group’s claims. The case turned on a dispute between the berry pickers and the entrepreneur over their rights, their treatment and the compensation they had been paid for their work.
 In a previous civil suit filed in 2015, a total of 50 Thai berry pickers had demanded more than 140,000 euros in compensation from the Sotkamo firm. A Kajaani prosecutor had also previously  refused to investigate a human trafficking complaint  filed by a group of 50 berry pickers working for Ber-Ex in eastern Finland.
 Forced to take high-interest loans
 The pickers said that they had been effectively forced to take high-interest loans from the Sotkamo company, Ber-Ex, which their earnings were then used to repay. The complainants said that the kilogram price that they were paid for the berries they picked was also lower than the price they had previously negotiated with the firm. In 2015, Ber-Ex was sold to the Arctic International Group.
 The lower courts rejected the berry pickers’ claims and ruled that they had agreed a fixed price for the berries they collected. However the rulings also acknowledged that the contracts had been agreed on a variable market price.
 The group’s lawyer,  Ville Hoikkala , said he had not yet been in touch with his clients and that the Supreme Court’s decision came as a disappointment, but not a surprise.
 "We have known about this situation for a long time. This shows that berry pickers in Finland have no legal protections and that berry wholesalers have the right to pay whatever they want, whenever they want," Hoikkala declared.
 He said however that the matter may still be handled out-of-court.
 "Now the juridical side of the matter has run its course and it will become a public discussion. I look forward to seeing how social discourse deals with it," Hoikkala added.
 Pickers not afforded worker protections
 In another case involving Thai berry pickers, the owner of a berry wholesale firm was convicted on human trafficking charges and slapped with a 20-month suspended prison sentence and was also ordered to pay costs amounting to 30,000 euros.
 The central Finland court that ruled on the case found the defendant guilty of trafficking 26 Thai nationals as well as fraud and waste management violations.
 Berry pickers in Finland have been regarded as individual entrepreneurs and therefore do not enjoy the protections that collective bargaining agreements which are ordinarily extended to workers.

Thai berry pickers denied leave to appeal ruling over rights, pay in Finland


Summary: Workers from outside the EU face long work permit waits, Germans express outrage at a bar linked to Finland's Nazi past and ticks hitchhike into Finland.

Business daily  Kauppalehti  takes aim at a labour practice which calls on employers to  prioritise EU and EEA citizens for vacancies —while politicians pay lip service to Finland needing more immigrants to fill labour shortages.
 A Loviisa-based fur company wanted to recruit an Afghan tailor living in the town. However it took eight months for Finnish officials to approve the man’s work permit as the job had to be posted on Eures, a European work portal, in addition to Finnish job boards.
 Olli Sorainen , a senior ministerial adviser at the Ministry of Economic Affairs and Employment, told the daily that EU citizens must still be given first-priority over applicants from outside the bloc.
 The National Coalition Party, the Greens and Swedish People’s Party have said they want to remove work restrictions on non-EU workers ahead of next month’s  general elections .
 War crimes denial?
 Local residents in Berlin are boycotting a bar called  Bryggeri Helsinki  after it emerged that the Finnish owner chaired an association for Finnish Waffen-SS veterans called "Fraternal Aid," reports  Helsingin Sanomat .
 The owner’s father enlisted as an SS volunteer at the age of 17.
 Germans interviewed by HS said they can’t fathom why someone would want to cherish the memory of Finnish SS soldiers, with locals expressing concern that the bar could become a meeting point for white nationalists.
 Residents have been astonished by the group’s website, which they said fetishises and attempts to normalise SS troops. The site includes photos of people posing with SS memorabilia.
 An  independent investigation  published in Finland last month found that  Finnish SS soldiers carried out atrocities  against Jews and civilians during WWII, with Finns’ involvement far more extensive than previous historical surveys had revealed.
 Murderous ticks
 Scientists in Finland have discovered a new giant tick species previously unknown in the country, reports tabloid  Ilta-Sanomat . Dubbed ‘murderous tick’, the hard-bodied  Hyalomma  tick can reach two centimeters in length and can sense a human up to nine metres away, making it far more resourceful than its homegrown counterparts, which a Turku researcher described as "slow" and "clumsy."
 A tenacious beast, the  Hyalomma  can follow its prey for up to ten minutes, according to the European Centre for Disease Prevention.
 Finland’s harsh winter conditions will, however, knock out the tiny bloodsuckers before they can establish populations, researchers said. The ticks hitchhiked into Finland on migratory birds from the African continent.

Thursday’s papers: Red tape for migrant workers, Nazi sympathisers and murderous ticks


Summary: This year’s edition prioritised quality over price, according to benefits agency Kela, following criticism that the 2018 box was partly produced with sweatshop labour.

Boat-necked onesies made a debut in this year’s forest-themed box for expectant parents. The social insurer also took parents' feedback into consideration by including a short-sleeved onesie among the products tailored for wintry conditions, such as a wool cap and insulated booties.
 Story continues after photo
 Annika Söderblom / Kela
 Kela said quality to price considerations weighed 70 to 30 when sourcing items for the 2019 maternity package. The quality to price ratio has been 50/50 in previous years.
 Corporate social responsibility watchdog Finnwatch has criticised Kela's selection criteria for prioritising low prices over suppliers' social responsibility, noting that  many products were produced in sweatshops .
 Story continues after photo
 Veggie-inspired in 2019 Kela
 The maternity package, which turned 80 last year, includes 63 items, such as a snowsuit, sleeping bag and personal care items. Kela will begin shipping the new boxes in April. The social insurer is meanwhile taking suggestions for the 2020 winter suit on its Facebook page.
 Parents can also opt to receive a tax-free payment of 170 euros instead of the box. In the past few years, the baby box concept has spread  beyond Finland's borders  with a number of private and public providers offering their own versions of the newborn package.
 Veikko Somerpuro / Kela

Finland unveils forest-themed 2019 baby box


Summary: A sex crime case dating back nearly two years is the latest to be revealed involving a minor in the northern Finnish city of Oulu.

Oulu District Court on Wednesday remanded a 20-year-old man in custody on suspicion of the aggravated rape of a 17-year-old girl. The suspect, a foreign citizen, denies the allegation.
 Police say the assault took place in a private home in Oulu. According to the tabloid Ilta-Sanomat, it occured in mid-April 2017.
 At the request of Detective Superintendent  Markus Kiiskinen , the case was heard behind closed doors.
 According to Ilta-Sanomat and local newspaper Kaleva, the man, born in 1998, took part in the hearing via video link from a holding cell at Haukipudas police station with the assistance of an interpretor.
 The court ordered all documents related to the court proceedings to be sealed. Police say they will not release any more information about the case while proceedings are underway.

Oulu court remands man for aggravated rape of 17-year-old


Summary: Many naturalised Finns aren't sure what the country's political parties stand for and often end up not taking advantage of their right to vote, two experts say.

Twenty-year-old  Tom Efrati  - who holds Finnish and Israeli citizenship - says he plans to vote in Finland's parliamentary elections in a couple of weeks.
 Efratiis one of more than 100,000 Finns with foreign backgrounds in the country who have the right to vote.
 "Absolutely I plan to vote. I think that every vote counts. The work of one MP affects us all. Finland has a good system that should be supported. The parliamentary elections are possibly the best opportunity to affect important decisions," Efrati said.
 However, according to recent voting records, Efrati is an exception to the norm. The majority of naturalised Finns don't bother to vote in national and regional elections at all.
 The Our Election campaign, organised by the Network of Multicultural Associations (Moniheli), is aiming to change the situation.
 Moniheli coordinator  Julie Breton  said there are several reasons why people in this diverse group usually don't bother to vote.
 Various barriers and obstacles
 "For example, a lack of language skills - and many don't even know whether they have the right to vote and aren't familiar with Finnish politics. It can also be that they don't feel like they're part of Finnish society,"Breton said.
 Researcher  Josefina Sipinen , who is writing a doctoral thesis on the topic, said there are other factors as well, including a person's background and how the democratic process worked in their country of origin.
 Sipinen said that if it wasn't possible - or even imaginable - to vote in their original home country, they aren't necessarily motivated to vote in their new home, either.
 "If the party system [where they lived before] was very different, then Finnish politics may be very foreign, especially if they've moved here as an adult," Sipinen said.
 Turnout levels
 During Finland's presidential election in 2018 there was a voter turnout of just under 70 percent among native Finnish citizens, while the turnout sank to 37.5 percent for voters with native languages other than Finnish or Swedish.
 Turnout among voters whose mother tongue was something other than Finnish or Swedish was even worse during 2017's municipal election (23.9%), particularly considering that even non-citizen residents were eligible to vote.
 However, there was also lower turnout in general among Finnish and Swedish speakers (57.5%) in the municipal election as well.
 People who've become citizens are a diverse group, according to language demographics data taken from voter records in the last presidential and municipal elections.
 Some vote, others not so much
 For example, people with Somali backgrounds took part in municipal elections much more than they did in the president's race. In terms of proportions, members of the Somali community had a voter turnout rate that was close to native Finns in the last municipal election.
 German speakers, on the other hand, voted quite a bit in both elections, but the proportion of those residents with full voting rights is small.
 People with Finnish citizenship can vote in all national and municipal elections, while permanent residents are limited to voting in municipal elections. Read more about voting in Finland  here . In European Parliament elections, citizens of other EU states may vote either in Finland or their home country.
 Sipinen and Breton both said they think it is important that more Finns with immigrant backgrounds become more engaged in society and should also take part as candidates.
 Our Election aims to get out the vote
 Moniheli's Our Election campaign is aimed at encouraging immigrant-background Finns to head to the polls for the parliamentary elections and has arranged various workshops and election debates around the country.
 The campaign's website features basic information about the election in around 20 languages, but lacks specific details about the various parties and the differences between them.
 "It's not quite enough just to inform people about their right to vote. People want to know about the policies that parties are running on. There is still very limited information that would reach people who speak foreign languages," Breton said.
 Moniheli, founded in 2010, is a cooperation network for multicultural organisations. As of 2017 the network had about 100 members.

Majority of foreign-background Finnish citizens don’t vote


Summary: A TE employment offices survey of 200 occupations was released as part of the Occupational Barometer, which is also available in English.

Ministerit, ministeriöt ja valtioneuvosto

There is a shortage of skilled workers in a growing number of professions in Finland, the Ministry of Employment and the Economy said on Thursday. According to its figures, there are particularly staffing shortfalls in some health and social service positions, with a big need for personnel in other jobs in the sector.
 The biggest need is for audiologists and speech therapists, followed by cleaners and then doctors, early childhood educators, social workers, counselors and nursing associates. Companies are also looking for contact centre salespeople, cooks as well as machine tool setters and operators in the metals industry.
 The data indicates that there was a shortage of qualified workers in 54 occupations as of the start of this year. That is a sharp jump from the corresponding figures of 39 professions early last year and 24 in January 2017.
 According to TE employment offices around the country, there is a growing need for recruitment of cleaners, restaurant workers, home care assistants, construction painters and drivers of earthmoving equipment.
 The survey of 200 occupations was released as part of the  Occupational Barometer , which is also available in English. It reflects estimates by regional TE employment offices of the short-term outlook for key occupations and workforce availability in various parts of the country.
 Oversupply in creative branches
 Meanwhile the number of professions where there is a labour force surplus has dropped from 29 last year to 21 this year.
 The building trade seems to have recovered from last year's severe workforce shortfall.
 The construction job on the shortage list is supervisors, whereas last year there were shortages in an array of construction jobs from steel fixers to engineers.
 The jobs with the biggest oversupply on the labour force are still secretarial positions, along with product and clothing designers as well as graphic and multimedia designers. They are followed by IT support technicians and installers, the journalists, printers and press technicians. New additions to the list include library clerks and teachers' aides. Generally there are more people seeking work than jobs available in the creative and communications fields.

Labour shortages striking more sectors, says ministry


Summary: According to the Police Board, there are grounds to shut the PVL down as it operates fundamentally operates in violation of the law and accepted principles of morality.

The Supreme Court on Thursday placed a temporary ban on the activities of a neo-Nazi organisation, the Nordic Resistance Movement (PVL). It also allowed the group the right to appeal lower court rulings against it, and said it will issue a final ruling later as to whether the group should be permanently outlawed.
 The National Police Board had sought the temporary ban after a district court and an appeals court earlier ordered the group to be dissolved.
 The Police Board will now order police departments to intervene in any PVL activity that is observed.
 "All of the PVL's activities are now banned. The association may not arrange demonstrations or use its symbols or flags in public. The use of its symbols may be interpreted as activities by a banned organisation," Police Board Chief Inspector  Heikki Lausmaa  said.
 The PVL insists it has operated within the bounds of the freedom of speech and association.
 Hate speech and violence
 "According to the Police Board, there are grounds to shut the PVL down as it fundamentally operates in violation of the law and accepted principles of morality by, for instance, spreading hate speech about immigrants, sexual minorities and Jews, questioning the Holocaust and glorifying fascists, as well as by approving of violence that has occurred during its operations," the Supreme Court said.
 It may take a year before the high court issues its final ruling in the case.
 Although the PVL had been ordered to shut down by lower courts, the decisions were not yet legally binding, so it has continued to arrange events. These included a  march in Helsinki last October , which police estimated involved around 100 people.
 The Police Board filed a brief calling for the organisation to be closed down after one of its leaders,  Jesse Torniainen , was imprisoned in late 2016. He was  convicted of aggravated assault  after attacking a passerby during a PVL demonstration near Helsinki Railway Station. The victim died a few days later.
 Pirkanmaa District Court first ordered the PVL to be banned the following year.

Supreme Court bans neo-Nazi group's activities


Summary: The press examine party ideas to get people to eat less meat, new data on a child sexual abuse case, and a threat to Finns MP Laura Huhtasaari.

The country's most widely-read daily Helsingin Sanomat looks at  recent campaign talk from some political parties about reducing the consumption of meat in Finland , due to its  impact on health  and the environment.
 Some of the parties suggest raising taxes on meat or reducing taxes on vegetables, to encourage people to eat better. Others propose changing agricultural subsidies to better reflect environment and climate considerations.
 HS says the parties are on to something, as diet accounts for 15 percent of household CO2 emissions, with meat and dairy products playing an outsize role, comparatively.  Food production is also responsible for 60 percent of nutrients that cause eutrophication in the Baltic Se a.
 The Social Democratic Party, for example, seeks to lower the value added tax on "products without high emissions" from its current 14 percent rate.
 In addition to problems with EU tax policy compliance, HS says this kind of tax policy to affect consumption has not always had the desired effect.  A recent sugar tax, for example, did not reduce sweets consumption, although it did steer people away from sugary drinks .
 Other parties like the National Coalition Party say the answer is to change agricultural subsidies in Finland to encourage more planet-friendly products. For example, vegetable and insect proteins should be supported so there is a "fair playing field" in comparison to meat and dairy products.
 A representative of the MTK farming lobby tells the paper that Finland's hands are tied in this area, too, due to EU membership and international agreements. He says the biggest reason more Finns don't eat recommended amounts of vegetable products is simply because they prefer meat. If meat were to become more expensive, he says, they would just look for cheaper, imported meat instead.
 Suspect in child sexual abuse case was church youth worker
 The Oulu-based newspaper Kaleva carries a  story on the suspects in an extensive child sexual abuse network uncovered by police.  The victims of the  suspected violent sexual abuse , which was believed to have taken place from 2014 to 2018, were six young boys.
 The paper says that the five Finnish men who are suspects in the case are from different parts of Finland. The main suspect is a 57-year-old tour operator from Lapland whose company organised events like canoe trips and dog sledding in northern Finland.
 Kaleva says the main suspect had also worked for the Finnish Evangelical Church nearly a decade ago, as a youth program assistant at a parish in Southern Ostrobothnia. He was also elected to the church council there, where he served for about two years.
 The paper reports that the other suspects in the case are a 43-year-old man from Vaasa, a 51-year-old man from Helsinki, and a 22-year-old man from Southern Ostrobothnia. The fifth suspect is unknown, the paper writes.
 Three of the suspects were convicted last August in the Helsinki District Court for their part in a methamphetamine ring. The suspect from Helsinki was sentenced to four-year suspended sentence for selling the drugs, which he brought into the country from Thailand and the Netherlands.
 Threats target Finns Party MP
 The tabloid Iltalehti features a story on   threats of violence against Finns Party MP   Laura Huhtasaari  and her family on Thursday.
 The person behind the threats has been identified as  Tero Niskanen , a municipal politician from the western city of Pori who represents the National Coalition Party. Niskanen has since submitted his resignation to the party and publicly apologised to Huhtasaari and her family.
 He wrote on Facebook that he was "very emotional" when he made a threatening call to the emergency services number. The call was traced and Niskanen was taken into custody. The police are investigating the incident.

Friday's papers: Politicians' plans to check meat consumption, child sex abuse suspects, MP threatened


Summary: The nationalist Finns Party posted the biggest gains, while the SDP, NCP and the Greens wobbled slightly. Changes were well within the poll’s margin of error.

Voters are rallying behind  the immigration-sceptic Finns Party  according to Yle’s latest political barometer, which shows the group with 15.1 percent approval. The party posted a 1.8-percentage-point gain in the poll to outstrip Prime Minister  Juha Sipilä ’s Centre Party and grab third place as the country’s most popular political force.
 According to research director  Tuomas Turja  of pollster Taloustutkimus, the growth in backing for the Finns Party was especially due to so-called "sleeping voters" gravitating toward the nationalistic group.
 "The Finns Party are now getting more supporters from those who didn’t know or didn’t want to say which party they voted for in the 2015 election," Turja added.
 In spite of the Finns Party’s pre-election surge, the largest opposition group, the Social Democratic Party, remains at the top of the voter approval poll with 20.1 percent support, despite losing 1.2 percentage points of voter backing.
 Meanwhile the National Coalition Party led by Finance Minister  Petteri Orpo  retained its second-place ranking with 15.8 percent approval, down marginally by 0.4 percentage points from a previous poll released on 7 March. At the same time, the NCP has narrowed the gap with the SDP.
 According to Turja any confusion caused by  the SDP’s stance on meat consumption  was not reflected in the outcome of Friday’s survey. "The last week of measurement was the best for the SDP," the researcher noted.
 Small boost for Centre after govt resignation
 Juha Sipilä’s Centre Party saw a marginal bump in its approval rating, which edged up by 0.3 percentage points to 14.4 percent but was pushed into fourth place by the rise of the Finns Party.
 Just one day after the last Yle poll, Sipilä marched to President  Sauli Niinistö ’s residence at Mäntyniemi to  announce his government’s resignation  over its failed social and health care reform programme. Reports indicated that the PM’s decision to quit government had affected the party’s election campaign. However the pollster did not see much evidence of this in the survey.
 "The weekly results show that the support for the Centre rose in the week after the government’s resignation. However after that it has remained unchanged. There was no evidence of a major spike," Turja commented.
 Now in fifth place in the party ranking, the Greens have the support of 13 percent of voters, down 0.7 percentage points from the previous poll three weeks ago. Immediately trailing in sixth place, the Left Alliance saw a slight rise of 0.9 percentage points to settle at 9.8 percent voter backing. Taloustutkimus speculated that poll respondents may have switched allegiance from the Greens and the SDP to the Left.
 According to Turja, all of the changes in Friday’s poll fall well within the survey’s margin of error of +/-2.3 percentage points. He noted that the margin of error is somewhat larger than usual because the sample size was smaller and the survey period was shorter than before.
 Finnish politics converging with Europe
 Researcher  Johanna Vuorelma  of Tampere University noted that the margins separating parties in the Yle polls have narrowed.
 "The fact that we see four parties separated by less than three percentage points is a very different situation than two years ago, for example," she pointed out, referring to municipal elections that took place in 2017.
 "We can see a very European development there. The landscape is fragmenting and no one party alone has the top position," she added.
 She remarked that voter activity is likely to influence a party’s popularity. For example, Finns Party backers may include people who are highly likely not to vote.
 "In many ways, support for the Finns Party is difficult to forecast. But it could be that the party could once more surprise us during the election," Vuorelma said, adding that minimal polling differences among parties also makes government negotiations trickier.
 47 seats for the SDP
 Since the beginning of the year, Taloustutkimus has calculated the number of MPs parties would seat based on successive polls, compared to their current representation in parliament.
 The calculations have been based on poll results gathered over the past six months, which means that the projected number of seats may differ from individual survey outcomes.
 Based on current calculations the SDP, which has been leading in the polls, would win 13 additional seats, easily making it the largest political party with 47 MPs.
 The pollster Taloustutkimus interviewed just under 2,000 respondents for the survey between 6 and 26 March.

Yle poll: Finns Party races to third place, SDP holds top spot


Summary: The number of people who spoke Finland, Swedish or Sámi as their native language fell by 36,000 in 2018.

Finland’s population grew by 4,789 in 2018, according to fresh population data released by state number cruncher Statistics Finland on Friday.
 The numbers show that the last time that population growth was as slow was in 1970. Over the past five years, the number of people who speak Finnish, Swedish or Sámi as their native language fell by 36,000. At the same time, the number of  foreign-language speakers  rose by roughly 103,000.
 By the end of 2018, people over the age of 65 accounted for one-fifth of the entire population. The number of residents under the age of 15 was 882,000 making the official population at the end of 2018 5,517,919.
 The country’s dependency ratio was 60.8 percent. That means that the number of non-working age people was 60.8 percent of the number of people in the labour force. The last time that the dependency ration was higher was in 1959.
 The location with the highest number of children and elderly people versus the number of working-age people was in Luhanka, central Finland, where the ratio was 106.1.
 Meanwhile the Helsinki region had the lowest proportion of non-working age people to the size of the labour force at 45.6.

2018 sees Finland’s slowest population growth in nearly 50 years


Summary: The suspects were found to have forged documents and maps of the border area between Finland and Russia.

Officials in St. Petersburg in Russia have reportedly held 27 Indian nationals suspected of attempting to illegally enter Finland.
 The 47News service reported on the detentions on Thursday, citing information obtained from the Russian security and intelligence service FSB. The group is believed to have violated entry regulations.
 According to the FSB, the group was found in the Vyborg area and was in possession of forged documents and maps of the border area between Finland and Russia saved on their phones.
 At least one of the maps had a marker for the city of Svetogorsk or Enso, in the Vyborg district of the Leningrad Oblast in the Karelia region.
 The group was reportedly held on Monday and was being detained in a St. Petersburg hostel serving as a temporary detention centre. Photos of the suspects provided by the FSB press service indicate that all of the detained persons are men.
 Local courts heard the men’s cases on Tuesday or Wednesday. The rulings suggested that they are likely to be deported, according to 47News.

Russia intercepts 27 Indians suspected of attempting illegal entry into Finland


Summary: An assessment of 60 years of weather patterns confirms that temperatures in Finland are getting warmer. The FMI predicts even hotter days on the horizon.

A string of abnormally hot temperatures recorded in Finland in recent years provides evidence for climate change, the Finnish Meteorological Institute (FMI) has determined.
 In a new  report  available only in Finnish, the institute analysed weather observation data from the last 60 years and found what it says is proof of a warming climate in Finland.
 Since 2010, there have been 102 days in which record daily temperatures have been reported, clearly more than at any time in the FMI's measurement history.
 The FMI says that these repeated temperature patterns are a sign that Finland is experiencing climate change. The weather experts also predict that the temperatures will continue to climb in the coming years.
 The institute says the trend is further supported by the report's evidence that winter days with abnormally cold temperatures are becoming a thing of the past. Finland's top meteorologists even venture to say that daily cold records will soon become "etched in stone", in that there is little chance that they will ever be surpassed.
 Annual incidence of daily maximum and minimum temperatures, 1959-2018 FMI
 The highest temperature ever recorded in Finland – 37.2 degrees Celsius – was measured on 29 July 2010 at the Joensuu Airport in Liperi, eastern Finland. A second seasonal spike in temperature – 20.9 degrees Celsius – was recorded last year, on 14 October in Kronoby, western Finland.
 At the other end of the spectrum, the coldest day on record was measured on 28 January 1999, when a temperature of -51.5 degrees Celsius was recorded in the Pokka district of Kittilä, in Finnish Lapland.

Finnish climate heating up, says meteorological institute


Summary: The Centre Party may be heading for one of its worst election results ever, says political pundit Sini Korpinen as APN mulls the party's election prospects.

A fresh Yle poll shows Prime Minister  Juha Sipilä 's Centre Party hobbling toward next month's general election  with 14.4 percent voter support . Political commentator  Sini Korpinen  and journalist  Sam Kingsley  told APN that the party may be heading for one of its poorest election outcomes, if Friday's poll is anything to go by.
 According to the pundits, Juha Sipilä has gone from being a promising "breath of fresh air" as a political neophyte who took over the party in 2015, to being the face of an government that introduced deep austerity cuts. If Sipilä is to be believed, he will  step down as party chair  if the Centre doesn't do well in the election on 14 April.
 Centre in opposition?
 Korpinen said that while the Centre has proved willing to experiment with new leadership in the past -- for example electing urbanite  Mari Kiviniemi  as chair in 2010 -- it will have to contend with traditionalists among its ranks. She added that the Centre's current polling may also suggest that it will likely sit out the next term in opposition, more so since it has typically not fared well in the polls after being in an administration that includes  Petteri Orpo 's National Coalition Party.
 APN's panelists also dissected Environment Minister  Kimmo Tiilikainen 's boast on  Yle News' election debate earlier this week  that the government was able to meet and exceed its employment target of 72 percent, paving the way for the next administration to build on its accomplishments.
 Korpinen said that the next government will likely have to make equally painful decisions to implement more spending cuts and to take forward much-needed social and health care reform. Kingsley, meanwhile, pointed out that the quality of the jobs responsible for the growth in employment was questionable, as many were not stable full-time positions.
 Party views in Yle News' election debate
 If you missed the live broadcast of the Yle News election debate, you can still catch the programme  on our website , on  Yle Areena  and  our Facebook page .
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 The All Points North podcast is a weekly look at what's going on in Finland. Subscribe via  iTunes  (and leave a review!), listen  on Spotify  and  Yle Areena  or find it on your favourite podcatching app or via our  RSS feed .
 This week's podcast episode was presented by  Zena Iovino  and  Mark B. Odom .  Denise Wall  was the producer, and the sound engineer was  Jami Auvinen .

All Points North #46: Platforms, promises and platitudes - the Centre Party


Summary: Foreign university applicants are hampered by a slow and complicated process of granting residence permits.

In an Yle survey many Finnish universities and higher education institutions have criticised what they see as needless bureaucracy associated with Finnish immigration policy.
 They say it's hard to boost the number of foreign students coming applying for permits if potential students have to wait months for permission to stay in the country.
 Yle interviewed representatives from 18 universities of applied sciences and 8 universities and found that the clear majority would like to see more fluid and speedy residence permit processing in Finland. Only 3 of the 26 felt the current system functioned well.
 Higher education has been touted as having the potential to be a moneyspinner for Finland as tuition fees of up to 18,000 euros per academic year have been required since 2016 for students originating from outside the European Union, the European Economic Area and Switzerland.
 Schools say the weakest link in the chain are Finland's embassies and consulates, as a lack of resources makes it difficult for applicants to university programs to identify themselves to the Finnish mission authorities. Biometric identification is now a prerequisite for the residence permit application process to start.
 Decisions from the Finnish Immigration Service (Migri) sometimes take months, causing some new students to miss the start of classes.
 Universities report losing potential students
 "The long processing period for student residence permits is unreasonable for people who are making decisions about continued studies and their future work path. Because of this, Finland is losing higher education students who have already been accepted in other countries," says  Kati Heikkinen , director of international studies at the Häme University of Applied Sciences.
 The result shows a consensus among the schools that something must be done quickly to improve the situation.
 "The processing times of residence permits need fine-tuning. They have to be shortened so students have a genuine chance to start their studies at the same time as their colleagues, so they can integrate into the student community," says student services chair  Eija Zitting  of Aalto University.
 Migri: Supplemental material makes process longer
 In 2018, Migri processed 5,200 residence permits associated with a study place, close to 90 percent of which received positive decisions.
 Finland's immigration authorities at Migri say they try to process student residence permit applications within 30 days. In practice, the process tends to take considerably more time.
 Tiina Suominen , head of Migri's immigration unit, says this is because, in addition to proof that a study place has been granted, the applicant has to show that they have enough money in their own bank account (560 euros monthly) to pay for their living expenses in Finland. They must also be prepared to show proof about the source of this money, if required. This means that when applying for a two-year stay in Finland, for example, accepted students have to have 13,440 euros at their disposal.
 Suominen says that many applications are not filled out properly, which also creates extra work and delays. She also points her finger at the universities for some of the timing problems.
 "One big problem is that we aren't given any kind of warning that certain groups are coming and they need to start their studies at a certain time. We are generally informed just a few weeks ahead of time and then we have very little time to get things done," she says.
 She says that if universities in Finland want foreign students to start in the autumn, then they should encourage them to start their residence permit process as early as May. Some higher education institutions in the country, however, don't finalise their are admissions decisions until July and August.

Universities claim foreign student enrolment stymied by residence permit red tape


Summary: Finland needs more foreign-background police to help connect with an increasingly diverse population, says the head of the police university college.

Police college director  Kimmo Himberg  said Finland needs to encourage people from more diverse backgrounds to serve in the police force.
 A new batch of recruits—half of them women—began their training at the police college in Tampere this week.
 “Based on their names around five percent of new students have an immigrant background, either recent or one or two generations back,” said Himberg, adding that the institute doesn’t record students’ ethnic origin or mother tongue.
 Growing need
 Immigrant-background recruits are still rare at the college, which is why the school launched a campaign this year to attract more diversity into its ranks. Finland is internationalising at a rapid rate. Some 200,000 residents in the capital region speak a mother tongue other than Finnish or Swedish.
 ”Research findings from countries more ethnically diverse than Finland show it’s favourable for the police force to reflect the makeup of the population they serve,” Himberg explained.
 Officers working in multicultural communities in Finland have been spreading the word about a career in law enforcement to get new blood to join the ranks.
 No positive discrimination
 The police college said that while it wants to see more immigrant-background candidates, entry requirements will remain the same and candidates must be fluent in Finnish or Swedish.
 Language proficiency is often a stumbling block for immigrant-background candidates, according to Himberg. He said those failing the language portion of the test should receive more encouragement to reapply.
 Family expectations can also prevent a young person from considering a job with the police—sometimes due to past experiences in their countries of origin.
 “Some youths have said it’s been difficult to tell their families that they’re applying to the police college.”

Police college: Finland needs more minority cops


Summary: The basic income group could have avoided employment-promotion measures if they wanted to -- but they didn't.

The first trial period of Finland’s basic income experiment  did not appear to have any statistical impact on employment , but it also did not seem to prevent recipients from making use of programmes designed to help them find work, according to a new report out by the government think tank VATT.
 In the analysis released on Tuesday, VATT said that by nature, the basic income experiment contained elements that could undermine employment measures and make people passive.
 It noted that participants in the programme could, if they wanted, avoid all of the employment-promotion measures offered to them, as well as the responsibilities imposed on jobseekers. The report noted if factors that have a positive impact on employment are removed from the trial, it could reduce the experiment’s employment effect.
 The authors noted that the body of international research into basic income particularly emphasises the threat of activation measures, among other factors. One of the most effective means of boosting employment has been found to be personal meetings between participants and employment officials.
 Basic income group did not become passive
 Removing this element could weaken the employment effect of the trial, if basic income recipients did not participate in employment promotion activities. However authors of the VATT report found that this was not the case.
 "In light of these results, the programmes offered by labour force professionals did not appear to be very unpleasant [to participants]. The basic income group participated in them in almost the same way as others, although the unconditional basic income offered them every opportunity to avoid the obligations of seeking employment," said head researcher  Kari Hämäläinen .
 A previous analysis of the basic income experiment by the benefits agency Kela found that the no-strings-attached monthly payment of 560 euros did not have any significant impact on getting people into work.
 The model was trialled from 2017 to 2018 and  involved 2,000 randomly-selected individuals  who received the tax-free monthly payment.
 "The trial was successfully implemented. The random nature of the selection ensured that we were able to reliably assess it using register data. Hopefully the incoming government will also use randomised experiments to develop the social benefits system," said specialist researcher  Jouko Verho .

Finland's basic income trial did not make recipients passive, govt think tank finds


21 suspects in conscript assault case
 Three career soldiers and 18 conscripts are suspected of keeping recruits in the snow without clothes or shoes.
 Soldiers in the Air Force Academy could face charges related to an incident last November in which conscripts from the Army’s Pori Brigade were kept in the snow without clothes or shoes during a military exercise.
 A total of 21 soldiers, including three career servicemen and 18 conscripts, are suspected of assault and misconduct.
 A criminal probe was launched when it emerged that prisoners were taken and interrogations conducted during a military exercise.
 The suspects admitted stripping the ‘prisoners’ and keeping them for long periods in the snow, while others were also detained for shorter periods in an ice-hole on a lake.
 Some of the victims received light injuries and sought seek medical attention.
 The case is now to be considered by senior military police, who will decide whether or not to pass the file on to prosecutors.

21 suspects in conscript assault case


Summary: A surprise surveillance check of 106 taxis in the capital city area discovered numerous shortcomings. Only 43 fulfilled all of the required criteria.

A police sting of taxis carrying customers in the capital city's Uusimaa region Friday found fault with over half of the operators that were pulled over for inspection.
 Police inspected 106 vehicles, and only 43 were judged to be in compliance with rules governing the trade in Finland. The sting was concentrated on areas near the Helsinki Airport and the city of Espoo.
 The most common shortcoming the police encountered was the absence of visible data on the taxi licensee's information, the driver's name and price information. Finland's  new transport services act  requires that each vehicle operating as a taxi has this information clearly displayed, where the passenger can easily read it.
 Three of the taxis inspected did not have a taxi meter, and two of the drivers were wanted as suspects in crimes. One driver pulled over was suspected of aggravated drink driving.
 In most of the cases, road safety issues such as valid driver's licenses and proper vehicle condition were judged to be sufficient. Almost all of the drivers were also in possession of a taxi driver permit, and each of the taxis that were checked had the appropriate operating licenses.
 Ten traffic police from Eastern Uusimaa and six from Western Uusimaa took place in the police operation. They were accompanied by one tax inspector from the Tax Administration and representatives of the Finnish Transport and Communications Agency Traficom.
 2,000 new drivers since deregulation
 Traficom reported in February that the number of vehicles being used as taxis increased by 25 percent – roughly 2,000 vehicles – since the launch of the taxi services reform in July 2018.
 Among other things, the reform opened up pricing to competition, paving the way for more taxi entrepreneurs and the return of ride-share services like Uber. It also did away with former so-called patrol areas, allowing cabs to roam freely as long as their license is up to date.

Police sting finds fault in over half of inspected taxis


Summary: Elixia's country director in Finland says the company made a mistake by threatening customers with drug tests in updated membership terms and conditions.

One of Finland's largest fitness centre chains, Elixia, will remove language from its customer contracts requiring its customers to forgo drugs and performance enhancers under threat of taking a drug test. The country manager of Finland's Elixia branch  Jussi Raita  says the mention of drug tests was a mistake.
 The wording was flagged by several legal experts before the company decided to remove the language from its membership agreements.
 Updated terms and conditions for Elixia membership would have threatened members with potential drug tests and required members to vow not to take drugs or performance enhancing substances.
 Refusing to take a drug test would have been interpreted as a material breach of the membership agreement, and would have lead to a membership in the fitness centre chain being freezed or terminated with immediate effect.
 The new terms and conditions for membership would have come into force this week for new members and in May for existing members.
 No right to administer tests
 Jussi Raita, the fitness centre chain's country director, admits that Elixia made a mistake in updating the membership agreement.
 "It should have read that our members undertake to not use intoxicants, drugs or substances classified as doping in Elixia centre premises. We have added this line to our updated membership agreement and removed the reference to drug testing," he said.
 Emeritus professor of law  Seppo Koskinen  had commented on the illegality of obligatory drug testing when news of the contractual wording change broke. In an earlier Yle interview, Raita had maintained that his company had every right to conduct the tests.
 "We had no intent to test our members with regard to the substances listed, nor did we have the right to do it. We apologize for our error. We will be more careful in our updates of our membership terms and conditions and the associated communications in future," Raita says.
 The country director explains that Elixia first included the wording prohibiting substance use to promote a clean fitness culture and safeguard the safety of its members.
 Elixia is one of Finland's largest fitness centre chains. It operates close to 30 locations in Finland's largest cities.

Fitness centre chain withdraws drug test language from membership agreements


Summary: Finland switched to summer time at 3am Sunday. Officials are pushing to keep standard time year round starting in 2021.

Hands on Finnish clocks will be moved one hour forward overnight as the country switches to daylight saving time ahead of spring. The official transition takes place at 3 am on Sunday, 31 March.
 The country won't return back to standard time until late October, when clocks will again be set one hour later.
 Finland has followed the twice-yearly custom of switching clocks since 1981. In Europe, the practice was adopted one year earlier, in 1980.
 MEPs decide to end clock fiddling
 Members of the European Parliament  decided this week to scrap daylight saving time starting in 2021 . The final directive still needs to be approved by the EU Council of Ministers. Finland is hoping this decision will be reached before the year is out, while it is still in possession of the rotating EU Presidency.
 It is now down to the individual EU countries to decide whether to stay on standard or daylight saving time permanently. The countries have until the end of the year to make their decision, if not sooner.
 "There are now three time zones in use in the EU and in Finland's view, this should be the maximum amount moving forward as well. We don't want a Europe that is fragmented into several time zones," says  Maria Rautavirta , a specialist at the transport and communications ministry.
 Finland has already submitted its preference in early February, when the EU ministerial committee of the government told the EU that it would prefer to stay on  standard time .
 Despite indicating this early preference, the Finnish authorities say they do not want to rule out other options if it will help the progress of negotiations.
 "We'll naturally monitor what our neighbouring countries and the larger nations of the EU decide for their time zones," Rautavirta says.
 At present, the Baltic countries, Greece, Romania and Bulgaria share the same time zone as Finland. Sweden joins the countries in central Europe in a zone that is one hour behind Finland, and Britain, Ireland and Portugal are among the countries that are two hours behind.
 Permanent standard time starting in 2021?
 If the EU council approves the directive still this year, Finland can start preparing its own legislation on a permanent time zone already in early 2020.
 As things look now, Finland will adopt standard time year round starting in 2021. A  poll from late 2018  found that over half of Finnish residents felt that this alternative, also known as winter time, was a better option.
 If the legislation follows the normal schedule, the Finnish Parliament would decide on the new permanent time zone in late 2020 and the new law would come into force in 2021.

Finland turns clocks forward, possibly for second-to-last time


Summary: Lappeenranta locals told Yle News that their main concerns ahead of the elections centred on immigration, safety, and improving the benefits system.

Yle News' voter pulse series found voters in the southeastern city of Lappeenranta who stressed the importance of exercising the right to vote in  upcoming parliamentary elections .
 "This is a great active right, to vote, and to choose where the policy-making of the country is going,"  Anna  told Yle News.
 Interviewees told Yle News that their main concerns ahead of the elections centred on immigration, safety, and improving the benefits system.
 "The Kela programme for students and the unemployed, the social programme, should be further enhanced because I think it's a good approach but I think there are still good things to be made better in the future,"  Lisa  said.
 Sote not a failure but democracy at work
 Sakari  noted that the  Juha Sipilä  administration had done well to improve the employment rate, but pointed to planned social and health care reforms as a major failure.
 On 8 March, Sipilä announced that  his government was resigning  over its failure to see through an ambitious social and health care reform programme (sote).
 But Anna said that what looked like a failure was actually a demonstration of a working democracy.
 "I think that even though this looks like a failure, I believe it also shows that this is an actual democracy and the parliament or prime minister is not just pushing his own agenda."

Watch: "It's important to vote" say Lappeenranta residents


Summary: Several Nepalese restaurants in Finland systematically violate labour laws, finds an investigation by daily Helsingin Sanomat.

Helsingin Sanomat  found that many workers in Nepalese restaurants in Finland are trapped in their positions. The paper reports that workers were expected to put in 16-hour shifts with salaries far below legal minimums.
 ”Workers pay huge amounts to reach Finland and once they get here they live in miserable conditions and are overworked, and the victims are too afraid to speak out,” said special investigator  Tuija Hietaniemi  of the National Bureau of Investigation (NBI).
 Officials have been slow to react, as things seemed to be in order—at least on the surface. Cooks may pull down a monthly salary of 1,800 euros—but some probing showed that was for 250-300 hours of work. Employees' salaries were meanwhile transferred into bank accounts controlled by restaurant owners.
 With their paperwork in order,  Timo Lappi , CEO of the Finnish Hospitality Association MaRa, said Nepalese restaurants have avoided officials’ radars.
 Lappi said that while it’s impossible for customers to determine how restaurant workers are being treated, very cheap prices can be a tip-off that everything is not as it should be.
 Labour trafficking
 The national daily found that kitchen workers, recruited from Nepal, faced a life of indentured servitude once in Finland, where they had to pay owners up to 10,000 euros for being hired.
 HS claimed that several Nepalese restaurant owners in Finland are related and will blackball workers who complain about conditions. This type of close knit network has deterred workers from reporting abuses.
 Pia Marttila , a special advisor on human trafficking at Victim Support Finland (RIKU), told Yle that her organisation is working with over 100 people trafficked in the food services and cleaning industries.
 ”The scope of the problem is enormous, and extends beyond a few isolated cases of people sleeping in the back of restaurants,” Marttila explained, criticising lengthy investigation periods involving labour trafficking.
 Marttila called for more police resources to monitor working conditions, as victims themselves rarely alert the authorities.

Daily: Modern-day slavery pervasive in Nepalese restaurants


Summary: As of April 1, unemployed job seekers will have more ways of meeting activation model requirements to avoid benefits cuts.

Unemployed job seekers will now have more ways to  fulfill requirements set out by the government’s activation model , which cuts unemployed job seekers' benefits if they do not comply with certain minimum criteria, such as taking courses to help their job search.
 Training schemes offered by labour unions, municipalities, employers, and the Finnish National Organization of the Unemployed will now also meet requirements for 'activation education'. Up until now activation training courses have been limited to those given by employment agencies.
 Career training
 Several trade unions have announced activation model training programmes this spring, including Service Union United PAM, the Trade Union for the Public and Welfare Sectors JHL as well as the Union of Professional Engineers.
 Government-approved courses may include CV clinics and tips on how to use social media to land a job, according to  Marjaana Maisonlahti  from the Ministry of Social Affairs and Health. Getting a hygiene passport, necessary for working in food services, or learning the basics of entrepreneurship will also fill activation requirements.
 Maisonlahti, however, pointed out that officials will not be vetting the quality of courses offered outside of employment agencies. It is up to organisers to evaluate that their training is meaningful for job seekers.
 Critics have pointed out that unemployed residents in rural areas will face more difficulty finding training opportunities at a reasonable distance.
 The Finnish National Organization of the Unemployed has called for abolishing the activation model entirely.
 The Social Democratic Party, currently drawing the  most voter support  ahead of next month’s  general elections , have vowed to rework the activation model, put forward by PM  Juha Sipilä 's centre-right administration, if they join the next government.

Government loosens requirements for "activation training"