Suicide wave amongst young Afghan asylum seekers in Sweden
The fear of being send back to Afghanistan has driven several teenage Afghan migrants to suicide attempts, some of them succeeded.
– In recent weeks, seven people attempted to commit suicide and three of them succeeded. They were all from Afghanistan, all boys, tells Mahboba Madadi who works with unaccompanied asylum seekers for the non-profit group, Ensamkommandes forbund.
The migrants were all under 18 and were at different housing centres across Sweden.
The Swedish Migration Board has introduced stricter asylum rules for unaccompanied teenage asylum seekers. And Madadi believes this is the reason for the suicide attempts the past two weeks.
– They’re afraid of being expelled and have no hope,says Madadi.
Age dispute
Swedish immigration authorities also believes that many of the asylum seekers has given up the wrong age when they entered the country. And after medical examinations they have concluded that they are not minors.
The percentage of Afghan boys who got their age overturned was 47 percent in 2015 and 36 percent in 2016.
– There is a lot of stress. There is loneliness and above all it is hopelessness, says Madadi.
– Safe enough
In 2016 the Swedish Migration Board in Sweden concluded that some areas of Afghanistan is “safe enough” and that they can return asylum seekers that got their application rejected. This despite the fact that Afghan authorities say they can not guarantee the security of those sent back.
Source: NTB scanpix / Norway Today
