Finish church helps Albanian family scheduled for deportation

TIRANA, Sep. 20 – The St. Michael Church in the Finnish city of Turku offered refuge to an Albanian family due to be expelled from Finland last week.
According to a report in the Helsingin Sanomat daily, the parish provided a secure dwelling for former Albanian police chief Pellumb Lisha and his family.
“We believe that it would be unreasonable to deport them,” said Jouni Lehikoinen, pastor at St. Michael’s. Lehikoinen added that the family had been threatened in their homeland and that the children had also been threatened with physical violence.
In Albania Lisha’s police responsibilities included investigating drug crimes and human trafficking. The pastor said that the Albanian would be in grave danger in his home country because he would not accept bribes. He added that Lisha has received death threats and that his children had been physically abused.
“We are still trying to determine how we can help them before the deportation order is executed,” Lehikoinen explained.
Lisha’s wife has worked in Finland for two years and the children attend school in Finland. The two teenage children filed asylum applications earlier this week and the family are hoping for a deferral of the deportation order.