Syria Archives • SwedeInternational

29 feb. Refugees look to move

refugees starting walking at the Turkish border
pic: NYTimes

Turkey’s President Recep Tayyip Erdogan announced today that he was going to open the border and allow the million-strong refugee population to leave Turkey, presumably for Europe. The 6 billion euros the European Union budgeted for paying off Turkey to not do exactly that is apparently already spent.

SvD writes that according to Doctors Without Borders, Turkey is currently harboring 3.6 million refugees, of which 365,000 come from countries other than Syria. Both Greece and Bulgaria share a border with Turkey, and there are Greek islands reachable by even a overweight and leaky rubber boat.

Minister for Justice and Migration, Morgan Johansson, seems unperturbed. In a comment, Johansson wrote that “We judge the risk for a new refugee crisis like the one in 2015 to be quite different this year. The situation in the EU and in Sweden is different. Sweden has another set of laws and it is harder for people to pass through Europe today. There are now many controls at the borders, and even in Sweden we have internal border controls that were put in place in 2015. The Swedish Migration Agency (Migrationsverket) has an expanded preparedness responsibility, and the government is in close contact with them.”

Moderate party leader Ulf Kristersson was more practical, calling for immediate aid to Bulgaria and Greece for help in strengthening their border control. “There will be big consequences if Turkey decides to renege on the (EU-Turkey) agreement” he said. “We know that Sweden and a few other countries are the most vulnerable if there isn’t a functioning border, as a lot of people come here.”

Before money is sent to Bulgaria and Greece though, a more likely scenario is sending another multi-billion cheque to Turkey for their continued help in penning in refugees. Keeping an army in Syria is expensive, after all, which is what the EU’s cheque will help fund.

30 Oct. – no to IS families

For many people, Sweden’s inability, or unwillingness, to bring back to Sweden the children of Swedish citizens in refugee camps for IS-sympathizers has been slightly inexplicable. After all, if a determined grandfather can go in there and get out his 7 orphan grandchildren, surely the government of Sweden can rescue the others if they wanted to. They have said it’s complicated, but that they’re really trying (see this post).

In an interview with Dagens Nyheter, published yesterday in connection with the “Speaking memories – the Holocaust’s last witnesses” exhibition at the Swedish History Museum, Prime Minister Stefan Löfven made clear that he wasn’t interested in bringing back families.

To those who traveled to IS country, Löfven had this message – you must lie in the bed you made (stå din kast). “Clearly,” said Löfven, “they were attracted to a community – for some reason I can’t understand – in which they believed. I can’t answer for them, but the rest our society must condemn it. And those that went there, they have to accept the consequences for what they did. Some of them say they would now like to come home. No. They were advised not to travel there already in 2011, but they went anyway, and now they must live with the results of their actions. I can’t feel anything but disgust. Seriously. What IS did there… you can’t believe it’s true when you hear the stories that come from those who have survived. Sweden shall be something quite different.”

It’s not clear if Stefan Löfven was speaking as the leader of the Social Democratic party or for the government, but at least he staked out a clear position. Going forward, it’s still unclear as regards the children. Certainly, it’s hard to say that their staying in the camps is acting in accord with the child’s best interests – an otherwise governing principle in Swedish affairs and in the soon-to-be-Swedish-law Convention on the Rights of the Child. But keeping the child with a parent has been another governing principle, and one that the government has perhaps decided it wants to have come first this time. However clear Löfven might want to be, he’s still ducking this issue.

13 Oct. – Swedes in Syria

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.