On Saturday, a group of Finns Party members were scheduled to visit the Puhos shopping centre in Eastern Helsinki as part of a party networking event.
The roughly 60-year-old Puhos shopping centre has become a hub for immigrant communities in recent years, and the site has also drawn gatherings organised by far-right groups.
Finns Party member and Raisio city councillor Sini Laine told Ilta-Sanomat that the purpose of the visit was to see Puhos for themselves.
"The idea was that we would see for ourselves what Puhos looks like. We have representatives from all over Finland, for example from Lapland, where there aren't very many immigrants," Laine told the newspaper.
However, the visitors stayed on the bus, after security personnel assessed that there could be a security risk.
Those on the bus included Finns Party Vice Chair Simo Grönroos and MP Pekka Aittakumpu.
"Apparently it was because there were identifiable Finns Party members who were present, and the security guards assessed that there could be a security risk," Laine told Yle.
Laine filmed a video in which she claimed that she could not see "a single ethnic Finn" in the area. She posted the video on her Facebook page, using the hashtag "send them back" in the caption.
Initially, Laine told Yle that parliamentary security staff had been on the bus. However, Aaro Toivonen, parliamentary security chief, told Yle that this was not the case.
The Finns Party later clarified on Monday that the security personnel were members of the party's own security team, not parliament's.
Locals question security threat
People who work and spend time at Puhos say they do not recognise the area as dangerous.
Shakur Nuur, who works at a shop at Puhos, and Joonas Kervinen, one of the authors of a recently published book about the area, told Yle they had never experienced threats there.
Kervinen described the Finns Party's visit as "populist theatre", arguing that negative perceptions of Puhos are often based on preconceived ideas rather than people's experiences of the area.
Nuur noted that Puhos is a multicultural area where anyone is welcome to visit.
