Suicide wave amongst young Afghan asylum seekers in Sweden

asylum seekers sent outAsylum seekers.Photo: pixabay.com

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

1 Comment on "Suicide wave amongst young Afghan asylum seekers in Sweden"

  1. Himatullah Safi | 9. February 2017 at 22:03 |

    Based on my experience who worked for many international organizations, NATO, USAID ICRC and IOM in many parts of Afghanistan. I haven’t seen a save place there except the president palace which is tightening security from sky and ground. But Afghan minister can’t go there without appointment approval. Taliban, Alqaida, ISIS, Iran intelligence, Pakistan intelligence, Russian, Indian and 48 others countries intelligence are active for their own interests. SO government is totally disappointed for the security of people. Off course Afghan Asylum seeker kills themselves . It is hard that Iranian gets permission to stay while they claims that they don’t have problems like Afghans. But the human right is for every one except Afghan. As an Afghan I am really regretful that I worked for international community. If I was working for Taliban I would not be in today’s condition. Fu****k UN.

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