STOCKHOLM (Washington Insider Magazine) – The relocation of children of a refugee couple from Syria by Swedish authorities has spurred a social media movement to bring together the entire family after years apart.
In early 2017, Diab Talal and his spouse Amal Sheikho relocated to Norrbotten County in northern Sweden as a part of the United Nations’ Syrian refugee resettlement program.
Talal claimed he and his wife felt depressed during the first few months of their relocation in a recent interview with the Swedish Center for Information, an information platform on immigration and asylum in the Nordic country.
Amal Sheikho, a Syrian refugee said in a statement that her kids were taken from the hospital just after they were born. She expressed her grief by adding that being a mother of five children who were separated from her and her husband, their pain is unimaginable.
He claimed that both he and Sheikho couldn’t communicate in the local language and were also dealing with sub-zero conditions in Sweden’s far north.
A neighbor notified his wife to Swedish social services, simply known as “Social,” around that time, Talal claimed, after finding her crying in a public laundry room.
After their 7-year-old daughter, Duha claimed they had hit her, their four children, ages three to nine, were taken away by Social.
According to Talal, authorities were unable to substantiate any aggression towards the children throughout the subsequent court proceedings.
He went on to say that 3 years after his children were taken away, a 5th kid was taken from them barely “five minutes” after being born, and Sheikho was denied the chance to nurse her child.
On social media, the situation has sparked outrage, with some people urging Swedish officials to reunite the family.
The official Arabic language account of Sweden replied to the viral video via a tweet saying that every child in Sweden has the right to a secure childhood and the state does not intend to separate any child from his or her family. This happens if it becomes clear and proven that there is a danger to the child,” according to the tweet.
To draw attention to the situation, some outraged social media users used the hashtag “Sweden is a fascist state” in Arabic and English.
According to Sweden’s migration office, some 150,000 Syrian refugees have gained residency and work permits in the nation since 2015.
In 2021, 27,000 of them became Swedish citizens, according to Swedish regulations that enable migrants to naturalize after 5 years.
The problem of Swedish officials removing children from Syrian families was previously mentioned by the Syrian Investigative Reporting for Accountability Journalism in a report published in 2019. (SIRAJ).
It spoke to Syrian parents involved in protracted court disputes in 12 cases across five Swedish towns.
