A doctor from Oulu was stuck in Thailand for months with his family: “The hardest time of my life” – 2024-08-16 08:00:45

Complete strangers came to the center of Oulu to congratulate Arno Talvisara and his wife Yingcham Dtaagaaeota. It was the first weekend of August.

On the street, a woman came to hug a married couple. It’s great that you got here, the woman said to the couple.

There is reason for congratulations. Finnish doctor Arno Talvisara has been stuck in Thailand with his family. The youngest daughter in the family Eve would have entered Finland as a citizen of the country, but a small child cannot travel to another country without their parents.

Talvisara’s wife is classified as a “security risk” because she does not have a passport.

Dtaagaaeo’s native Myanmar is in the midst of a civil war. The only way to get a passport would be to pick it up on the spot, but traveling to the country is life-threatening.

Now the battle is finally over, and Talvisara’s family has reached Oulu. The journey was not easy.

– The past summer has definitely been the heaviest of my life, Talvisara sighs.

Meeting at the workplace

Talvisara has traveled a lot in Thailand, more specifically in Chiang Mai, where his wife Dtaagaaeo used to live.

Dtaagaaeo was born in Myanmar. He belongs to the Shan mountain people, the largest, and discriminated, population group in Myanmar. When Dtaagaaeo was 12 years old, his mother died. Dtaagaaeo became an orphan and moved to Chiang Mai to live with his relatives.

About seven years ago, Dtaagaaeo was working in Chiang Mai at a restaurant where Talvisara often went to eat. Soon they started getting to know each other.

– I didn’t know how to speak Thai yet, but I had already learned a little. We started chatting a lot via messages. Fai’s home has a very conservative culture. It took a long time before I took him out, says Talvisara.

Dtaagaaeo’s nickname in Thailand is Fai. In the country, it is very common for people to be nicknamed, and the full name is only used in official contexts.

Then Talvisara went to meet Dtaagaaeo’s family. He asked permission to take Dtaagaaeo out, and the pair fell in love. In March 2019, they got married in a Buddhist ceremony.

Dtaagaaeo has a daughter from a previous union Kunthida Boonkerdnicknamed Bikun. Talvisara says that Bikun has been like her own daughter since the beginning.

The problems begin

The problems of bureaucracy soon became apparent to the couple. The couple would have liked to come to Finland to formalize their marriage in the summer of 2019.

– I took it for granted that my wife would be granted a visa to Finland. But the Finnish embassy did not grant it to him, Talvisara says.

At that time, the wife still had a Myanmar passport. When the situation changed in Myanmar, Dtaagaaeon got a stateless ID card in Thailand. It was only allowed to have and work in one province. At that time, you also had to give up your Myanmar passport.

The only way to get a passport would be to travel to civil war-torn Myanmar. A military dictatorship seized power in Myanmar in 2021 and the country’s security situation is unpredictable. Applying for a passport would put Dtaagaaeo’s life in danger.

Dtaagaaeo has been living in Thailand with the identity card of a stateless person. Because of this, they did not even agree to grant him a foreigner’s passport in Thailand.

In the summer of 2019, Talvisara settled in Thailand with her family.

– The intention was that Fai would have come to visit Finland. But when the visa was not received despite the appeal, I had no other option but to stay in Thailand, says Talvisara.

In Talvisara, he managed to do gigs as a doctor in Finland. Bikun had grown up for the first years of his life without Talvisara, so gig work did not complicate the family’s everyday life.

– But the situation changed when our daughter Eeva was born, Talvisara says.

In August 2023, Eeva was born into the family. The family wanted to stay together, and Talvisara could no longer go to Finland for long work gigs.

– On September 21st, we applied for a residence permit to Finland for Fai and Bikun. Originally, I was supposed to work this summer in Oulu as a doctor, Talvisara says.

– At that time, Migri was told that the lack of a passport was not an obstacle and that the processing time would be around six months.

It happened otherwise. Talvisara’s wife was not granted a residence permit within the promised, even statutory, 9-month period. The Immigration Office’s line was that Dtaagaaeo needs a passport. The family was stuck in Thailand.

It took the Immigration Office ten months to process Dtaagaaeo’s residence permit application as the spouse of a Finnish citizen.

– We have been very nervous.

Excitement at the airport

Finally, at the end of July, Talvisara’s family got a decision. The family went to pick up a laissez passer travel document for Dtaagaeo from the agency. Dtaagaaeo and Bikun’s daughter will also receive residence permit cards. Daughter Eeva got a Finnish passport.

The laissez passer document made it possible for Dtaagaaeo to get to Finland through family reunification, even though he is a person without a passport.

The family traveled to the airport early on August 2. The family was worried whether the Thai border control would accept Dtaagaaeo’s documents.

The documents were approved and the family entered the gates. The Finnair flight left on time for Helsinki. It was unreal, Talvisara describes.

The family arrived in Oulu on Friday evening, August 2 at 10 p.m. They went to Talvisara’s friend and his family for the night.

– When we got off the plane, I thought the weather was a bit cold. But my wife liked the cool air, says Talvisara.

When they arrived at the friend’s family, Dtaagaaeo was already in the sauna after 15 minutes. The family could finally relax.

“Finland’s actions broke the law”

The Talvisara family has an unfurnished apartment in Oulu. They have received sofa furniture, a children’s rocking horse and food items with a donation from their circle of friends.

– My faith in Finns has been restored. Everyone has had a great desire to help. My family feels welcome, says Talvisara.

But Talvisara’s opinion has changed about the way the Finnish state operates. The unreasonably long processing time has been excruciating for the Talvivara family.

– I would never have believed that I wouldn’t be able to get my family to Finland. Finland’s actions have violated section 23 of the Administrative Law and UN human rights, Talvisara thinks.

Talvisara says directly that he previously voted for the coalition and was a politically liberal person who leaned to the right. Through his own experiences, his world of thought has started to move somewhat earlier to the left, to the “non-socialist” area.

Talvivara has raised concerns about how human rights are realized in Finland.

– However, I am an educated person and I have a lot of contacts through which I got help. But what about those who are poor and have a language barrier? Talvisara is thinking.

Talvisara has written a blog about her family’s experiences. The blog has attracted a lot of interest and is read by up to 20 thousand readers.

– It has been very moving how the Finns have congratulated my family on getting home, Talvisara sums up.