Sweden Facing Another Migrant Invasion?

Left: According to Sweden’s current law, the government can only operate border controls six months at a time, and there is a two week waiting period before the controls can be reinstated. Right: Fifteen-year-old Arminas Pileckas was stabbed to death at school, but the young Syrian who murdered him will not be charged or penalized. The age of criminal responsibility in Sweden is 15, and the murderer claims he is 14. The murderer’s father blamed the school, saying they “did nothing to help him or to restore his honor [because the victim interfered with his sexual advances]. Instead, my son had to see [Arminas] at school every day. It upset him very much.”

 

• Swedish law only allows the government to operate border controls six months at a time, and there is a two-week waiting period before the controls can be reinstated. The two-week lapse is scheduled for July 4-17; many fear that tens of thousands of migrants will seize the opportunity to enter Sweden during this time.
• A new report on migrants in Sweden, based on interviews with 1,100 students in Stockholm (90% of respondents were Muslims) found that immigrant youths live in a different world from their Swedish peers. 83% of the girls are not allowed to have male friends, 62% of the boys are not allowed to have female friends.
• After several sexual attacks on women in Östersund, the local police issued a warning that women are not safe outdoors after dark. Since February 20, eight women have been sexually assaulted or raped in the town.
• A bus driver was suspended from work after sharing posts on Facebook that were critical of immigration. A wave of public criticism of the bus company then led them to reverse the decision. The company admitted that the driver had never treated anyone badly.
• The Swedish Security Service has identified at least 60 asylum seekers as terrorists and a threat to the country. However, the Immigration Service refuses to deport them.

In early March, the Swedish government announced that the country’s tighter border controls at the Öresund Bridge might remain in place for the foreseeable future, and that they may even become permanent. The problem, however, is that this summer, a two-week lapse will occur. According to the current law, the government can only operate border controls six months at a time, and there is a two week waiting period before the controls can be reinstated. The gap will occur July 4-17, right in the middle of the European vacation period. Many people fear that tens of thousands of migrants will seize the opportunity to enter Sweden during this time. When the migration wave peaked in the fall of 2015, Sweden received 9,000 migrants per week. So far this year, the number has been steady at 600-700 per week.

How Sweden, the most open country in the world, was overwhelmed by migrants

A man ascends on an escalator as signs put up by the Sweden Democrats political party are seen at Ostermalmstorg subway station in Stockholm Photo: REUTERS

 

Sweden used to pride itself on giving a warm welcome to outsiders. But as the refugee crisis grows, so too does its sense of injustice

When it opened 15 years ago, the Öresund Bridge was seen as a glistening symbol of the new Europe. Sweden and Denmark had been joined together by a motorway with no border controls, fusing together economies and even blurring national identities. Many Swedes in Malmö have come to relish the city’s growing reputation as a suburb of Copenhagen, just half an hour away by train. It seemed to embody many dreams about the future: a continent where national borders would come to mean nothing. That dream was shattered at noon today.