pic: telegraph.co.uk
Around 800 prisoners in the Kurdish-controlled camp of Ain Issa have escaped due to the invasion of Turkish forces in north-east Syria. This disturbing news item is included in this blog on Swedish politics because there were Swedes in that group, as well as Norwegians and many other Europeans (DN.se/AinIssa). Other reports say only 100 prisoners escaped, but, all were agreed that the situation is pretty much sheer chaos.
Bringing back the Swedish children and their families who are living in the refugee camps and prisons is now even more difficult due to the Turkish offensive. Not that it was ever easy, as the government had yet to formulate a position on it even before the invasion. Hopes have been held out, ever since the camps were set up, that the European Union would do something – then Sweden wouldn’t have to figure out the right thing to do on it’s own – but so far it’s been nada from the EU.
Back in April, then-Minister for Foreign Affairs Margot Wallström said that the children of Swedish IS terrorists would be taken home. But besides the 7 Swedish orphans that were flown back to Sweden due to the well-publicized, and on-site, efforts of the children’s grandfather, nothing else has been done that has made it to the papers. There are estimated to be about 57 Swedish children, plus their mothers who joined IS back in the day, in the camps. Most of them are in the Al-Hol camp in the north east. Until now, the Kurds have shouldered the responsibility to run these camps, but now that will likely fall to the Turks, assuming their take over continues.
“It is very, very olyckligt” said Minister for Foreign Affairs Ann Linde yesterday. Olycklig can be translated many ways – unfortunate, wretched, infelicitous, unlucky, grievous, sad, unhappy, dismal – reader’ choice. “We want to bring the children home” she continued. “But it is much, much more difficult than we thought. Partly because there are laws that say one can’t take a child from its mother, or take a child from a Swedish mother whose father comes from another country. Partly also we have international law. There are so many obstacles – which I don’t think we knew about in the beginning” (DN.se/AnnLinde). According to Linde, other European countries are having the exact same problems. “Furthermore, it isn’t always easy to be certain of their identities, or who the child’s parents are” (SvD.se/AnnLinde).
For others, however, it seems identity is not at all an issue. SvD was in touch with a man in Sweden whose daughter and grandchildren are in the Al-Hol camp. In a conversation with his daughter last week, she expressed fears that the Kurdish forces will leave to fight the Turks, and leave the camp on its own. “The fear is that they just open the doors, and it will be up to each person to make their own way. How women and children will make it, out in the countryside, in an aggressive environment, I have no idea” said the anonymous man. “My daughter wants to get out of there. The question is how one does that (SvD.se/daughter).
That is the question. In a recent poll instituted by Save the Children, Sweden, 42% of respondents thought that the children, together with their mothers, should be allowed to return to Sweden – if, that is, the mothers’ possible crimes and their suitability as guardians were investigated. 11% thought the children alone should be brought back to Sweden, while 29% felt that both mothers and their children should remain in Syria. 18% said they didn’t know (SvD.se/ISpoll). This was before Turkey invaded, so that percentage that is for bringing them back to Sweden has likely risen.