Stockholm
\nSwedish authorities are fighting back against claims its social services are \u201ckidnapping\u201d Muslim children, denouncing a \u201cdisinformation campaign\u201d of viral videos spreading mistrust among immigrant families.
\nVideos began appearing on Arabic-language social media sites in late 2021 of real interventions by child welfare services, showing crying children being separated from distraught parents.
\nWith limited context about the situations portrayed, the videos accuse Sweden of being a fascist state where social services place Muslim children in Christian homes with paedophiles or where they are forced to drink alcohol and eat pork.
\nAfter Mideastern media outlets reported on the claims, Swedish government officials and social services have come out in force to deny the allegations.
\n\u201cWe absolutely do not do that,\u201d Migration and Integration Minister Anders Ygeman told AFP, stressing the main goal was to support families.
\nYgeman said the campaign was being fueled in part by \u201cfrustrated parents who have failed in their parenting\u201d and were projecting their anger at authorities.
\n\u201cThere are also malevolent forces that want to exploit these parents\u2019 frustration to spread mistrust and division,\u201d he said.
\nSweden\u2019s newly created Psychological Defense Agency has described many of the videos as old, presenting a false context with a \u201cpurpose to polarize.\u201d
\nMagnus Ranstorp, a terrorism expert at the Swedish Defense University, told AFP the campaign was primarily based on a Facebook group called \u201cBarnens Rattigheter Mina Rattigheter\u201d (Children\u2019s Rights My Rights), where parents share experiences of having their children \u201cunfairly\u201d removed from their care.
\nRadical imams in Sweden and abroad picked up on the stories, as did a new fringe political party Nyans (Nuance), which has made the forced removal of children a rallying cry ahead of the general election in September.
\nMuslim online influencers with millions of followers also joined the fray, as well as Arabic site \u201cShuoun Islamiya\u201d (\u201cIslamic Affairs\u201c), which has published around 20 videos. Several protests have also been held across Sweden.
\nRanstorp said that while there may be some legitimate criticism against social services, the harsh rhetoric in the media posts was \u201cinciting.\u201d
\nJulia Agha, head of the Arabic-language news outlet Alkompis based in Stockholm, has followed the campaign closely.
\n\u201cStarting out, it was probably intended as a campaign where families of those whose children have been taken into custody have felt unjustly treated and wanted to criticize social services,\u201d she told AFP.
\n\u201cWhat\u2019s happened is that this campaign has ended up in the hands of forces abroad that have put a religious filter over it and are spreading disinformation, which now looks more like a hate campaign against Sweden and Swedish society.\u201d
\nSweden\u2019s National Board of Health and Welfare, which oversees social services, insists that removing children from their homes is always a last resort.
\nIt is only done \u201cwhen voluntary measures are not possible and there is a considerable risk that the child\u2019s health or development is harmed,\u201d the agency told AFP in an email.
\nIn 2020, a total of 9,034 children were in state-ordered care without their parents\u2019 consent, official statistics show.
\nResearchers and social workers have noted that while more immigrant children are removed from their homes than ethnic Swedes, immigrant families are also less likely to accept earlier stages of assistance from social workers.
\nSweden is often hailed as a pioneer in children\u2019s rights and was the first country to ban corporal punishment of children, including spankings, in 1966.
\nBut critics say that dismissing the issue as disinformation ignores real issues with social services.
\nMariya Ellmoutaouakkil, 35, who immigrated to Sweden 12 years ago from Morocco, organized a protest outside the social services office in her hometown of Gallivare last year, after two of her three children were removed from her care.
\nShe told AFP her son, aged 10, and daughter, six, were taken after social services alleged violence in the home.
\nShe said the decision was not based on evidence, only on social workers\u2019 interviews with the children that she has never been allowed to see.
\nSocial services typically do not comment on individual cases.
\nEllmoutaouakkil said she understood her children had not been \u201ckidnapped,\u201d but did understand why some people use the term.
\n\u201cIt can start to feel like a kidnapping for me as a mother,\u201d she said. \u201cWhen we as parents don\u2019t get answers, I can understand that they call it that.\u201d
\nSweden has struggled for years to integrate immigrants.
\nThe wealthy country of 10.4 million granted asylum and family reunifications to more than 400,000 people from 2010 to 2019 \u2014 more per capita than any other European country.
\n\u201cSweden still has many integration challenges, not least when it comes to segregation,\u201d Agha told AFP.
\nShe said many immigrants struggle to learn Swedish, live in areas where they only interact with other immigrants, and don\u2019t feel a part of Swedish society.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Stockholm Swedish authorities are fighting back against claims its social services are \u201ckidnapping\u201d Muslim children, denouncing a \u201cdisinformation campaign\u201d of viral videos spreading mistrust among immigrant families. Videos began appearing on Arabic-language social media sites in late 2021 of real interventions by child welfare services, showing crying children being separated from distraught parents. With limited […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-246142","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","6":"category-world"},"yoast_head":"\n