Male asylum seekers from the continent should therefore be forced to submit to sterilisations, according to Sademies.

Olli Sademies (PS), a deputy councillor at the City of Helsinki, wrote on his Facebook page on Tuesday that asylum seekers arriving in Finland from Africa should not be allowed to have more than three children.

“African people continue to breed at the same rate after they have arrived in Finland as ‘refugees’, even though less would be enough. It is therefore necessary to limit the number of children immigrants can have in order to prevent a complete collapse. A maximum of three children,” Sademies states.

The large families of immigrants will crumble the social security system of Finland, he argues.

Party secretary Riikka Slunga-Poutsalo affirmed that the Finns Party will ask Sademies to account for his dubious comments. The Finns Party commented on the incident via its official Twitter feed.

Sademies, who has stood as a candidate for the Finns Party in parliamentary elections, says that his statement was deliberately undisguised. “We must do more about the population explosion in Africa than ship a few billion people to Western Europe and thereby move the problems here. That's not a solution,” Sademies explained to Helsingin Sanomat by phone.

“They place too big a burden on our social security system, frankly speaking. The writing is naturally straightforward, I admit, but I want us to start talking about [the issue] in a serious manner.”

He also affirmed that he stands by his words. “That doesn't mean that I'm absolutely of the opinion that this is what we should do. It's about making proposals,” Sademies said.

Sademies retired from his post as a detective chief inspector at the Helsinki Police Department nine years ago. In addition to serving as deputy councillor at the City of Helsinki, he is a board member at the Real Estate Department of Helsinki and the Helsinki Region Environmental Services Authority as well as a deputy board member at Pääkaupunkiseudun Vesi Oy.

Heidi Lämsä – HS

Aleksi Teivainen – HT

© HELSINGIN SANOMAT