Elderly Human Rights Activist Wins Battle to Stay in Finland
Kirbasova and her daughter Kermen Soitu.
Image: YLE
Maria Kirbasova, an ailing Russian human rights activist, has won her battle to stay in Finland. The Finnish Immigration Service granted her a residence permit earlier this week. The agency's decision overturns an earlier deportation order.
The immigration authority said it would have been unreasonable to uphold the deportation order, which was handed to 67-year-old Kirbasova last year. Kirbasova is in poor health, and she is fully dependent on her daughter Kermen Soitu with whom she lives in Helsinki.
A year ago the Immigration Service rejected Kirbasova’s residence permit application. However the Helsinki Administrative Court reopened her case last year. The initial deportation decision sparked a public outcry in Finland, and several high-ranking politicians called for Kirbasova to be allowed to remain in Finland.
Kirbasova is an active opponent of the conflict in Chechnya and founder of the Committee of Soldiers' Mothers, which seeks to expose human rights violations within the Russian military.
YLE