Why are the Swedish authorities accused of kidnapping Muslim children?
The prosperous Scandinavian nation’s social service is under fire for having “kidnapped” children of Muslim immigrant families – accusations that the country says constitute a “disinformation campaign”.
Since the end of 2021, social media has seen a surge in viral videos of Swedish authorities removing children of Muslim immigrants from their homes, accompanied by allegations that the social services have “kidnapped” and abused the children.
The accusations include that the children, after being taken from their families, are placed in Christian foster homes where they are “secularized” or “assimilated” by, for example, being fed with pork and consuming alcohol. Some have even claimed that the children were detained by the social services or placed with pedophiles.
Sweden, on the other hand, has denied the allegations and advocated for the disinformation spread through the viral videos, leading to mistrust among immigrant families.
The Swedish Ministry of Foreign Affairs raised the issue in a 5-part Twitter thread and warned that “a disinformation campaign” was underway and that the social services “always put the child’s safety and well-being first.”
The Ministry also emphasized that social workers can only separate children from their families with consent, or through court decisions if families do not cooperate voluntarily.
1. A disinformation campaign is currently underway on various social media – both in Sweden and abroad – which claims that the Swedish social services are kidnapping Muslim children. This information is incorrect. It is seriously misleading and aims to create tension and spread mistrust.
– Swedish Ministry of Foreign Affairs (@SweMFA) 11 February 2022
Minister of Migration and Integration Anders Ygeman said that the issue is being discussed with Muslim non-governmental organizations, at the same time as he claimed that Swedish social services “absolutely do not” kidnap children.
According to Ygeman, the disinformation campaign is partly fueled by “frustrated parents who have failed in their parenting”, who now blamed the authorities out of rage.
“There are also malicious forces that want to take advantage of these parents’ frustration to spread mistrust and division,” Ygeman added.
According to the Defense Psychologist, many of the viral videos that have led to an escalation of the kidnapping allegations are old videos that have been given in a misleading context to “polarize” people.
“A very aggressive rumor campaign is currently underway on various social media … This information is of course seriously misleading and the only purpose is to create tension and spread mistrust,” the Swedish Consulate General in Turkey’s Istanbul also said in a statement.
Swedish authorities have persistently defended that the social services are monitored by professionals and primarily aim to support families and protect children.
Real problems are overshadowed by misinformation
– In the beginning, it was probably intended as a campaign where families of those whose children have been taken care of have felt unfairly treated and wanted to criticize the social services, says Julia Agha, head of the Stockholm-based Arabic-language news magazine Alkompis, to the news agency AFP.
“What has happened is that this campaign has fallen into the hands of forces abroad that have put a religious filter over it and spread disinformation, which now looks more like a hate campaign against Sweden and Swedish society,” she added.
Simultaneously with the viral videos, immigrant families have taken to the streets in several parts of Sweden to protest against what they say is the unfair removal of their children from their homes and their subsequent abuse.
Their protest banners read, “Give us our children back,” “Our children were taken from us, we were subjected to injustice,” and “We want justice.” The families also expressed disagreement with the state’s choice of foster families which they found unsuitable for the care of their children.
Mikail Yuksel, leader of the Swedish Nuance Party (Partiet Nyans) who was present in the protests, acknowledged the disinformation on social media but emphasized that there was a real issue beyond the “rumors”.
“The social authority’s motivation for taking a child from a Swedish family is not the same as the reason for taking a child from a Muslim and immigrant family. Formidable prejudices come into play for Muslim and immigrant families,” he told Anadolu Agency and hinted. double standards on the part of the Swedish authorities.
Yuksel added that a report from the Swedish Discrimination Agency really showed discrimination against immigrants. Authorities and researchers had also noted that children of immigrants were removed from their families more often than children of ethnic Swedes.
An example is Mariya Ellmoutaouakkil, a 35-year-old mother of three who immigrated to Sweden from Morocco over a decade ago. Two of her children, her 10-year-old son and 6-year-old daughter, were removed from her care.
The social services had taken her children for unfounded accusations of violence, she tells AFP. The only evidence in the case was the interviews the social secretary had with her children, to which she was denied access.
“It can start to feel like a kidnapping for me as a mother,” Ellmoutaouakkil said, stressing that she was aware that the children had not been “kidnapped”.
“When we as parents do not get an answer, I can understand that they call it that,” she added.
Diab Talal and his wife Amal Sheikho, who immigrated to Sweden in 2017 through the UN program for resettlement of refugees, also had their children abducted. Four of their children were taken the same year they had come to Sweden, while the fifth was taken in 2021 immediately after it was born.
“We came to Sweden from a stressful road and war. When we first arrived we were depressed. They took our four children away from us because of our neighbor’s complaint … that we used violence against our children, Talal tells Anadolu Agency.
The couple’s investigation found no evidence of the allegations, but the social services continued to place the children in different families and banned the couple from meeting them, according to Talal.
“While we shed tears for our children, we were targeted in the Swedish media and branded ‘Islamists and terrorists’,” Talal added, referring to a demonstration they had joined to protest the treatment of Swedish authorities.
Source: TRTWorld and agencies