Prime Minister Stefan Löfven in the place of Tjärna Ängar

Of: Joachim kerpner

Published: October 21, 2020 at 6:33 p.m.

BORLÄNGE. International students who have been placed in student apartments in crime-ridden Tjärna Ängar are scared and want to move to the center of Borlänge.

Prime Minister Stefan Löfven toned down the description of the situation when he visited the area.

– It’s a shared image. Many are also proud to live here, was the response to the student spokesperson.

On Wednesday, the Prime Minister visited heavily immigrant Tjärna Ängar in Borlänge, who has only been hit by multiple shootings and assassination attempts since last summer.

Stefan Löfven was informed that the police and the municipality currently believe that there is a “yellow situation” in Tjärna Ängar, unlike before, when it was a “red situation”. The prime minister was then led on a crown-proof outdoor hike in the area.

Photo: Robin Lorentz-Allard

Prime Minister Stefan Löfven visits Tjärna Ängar in Borlänge.

The first stop was the hostel, where the manager said:

– I have worked here for eight years and never felt unsafe.

The second stop took place outside of the 126 student apartments in the area, which Aftonbladet reported nearly two weeks ago. Many international students from Dalarna University who have been placed here have chosen to interrupt their education and move home due to insecurity.

“We want the center”

Mufassireen Ahmed, the representative of international students, appealed to the Prime Minister to move to apartments in the city center.

Stefan Löfven replied that the area has recently had more police officers, adding that many people like to live in the area. But Mufassireen, who comes from India, did not give up:

– We are only here a few months, we do not have time to wait for new apartments to be built. We want the center.

Then the Prime Minister’s escort said that, sadly, time was up and the entourage kept wandering.

Under a maple tree that has lost almost all of its leaves, Löfven talked with three students about their future. Then he expected a meeting outside the gates of Hemköp, with the merchant Simon Nilsson.

“It’s quiet in the store, but we’ve had incidents outside,” he said.

Believe in camera surveillance

The prime minister returned to the starting point, waved to some Somali women, and then had to meet a newspaper messenger who had been stolen from his car by criminals in the area, before Aftonbladet had a chance to make some questions.

When Aftonbladet visited the meadows of Tjärna in 2012, houses fell into disrepair and newcomers asked for help with jobs and education. Today is worse: the area is characterized by crime and chaos, many feel unsafe. What responsibility does the government have in this?

– There is a shared image about the meadows of Tjärna. When I got out of the car, a man said, “I like living here, I’m proud to live here.” That said, obviously there are problems here, we have received testimonies of pure crime. Here, as in the country as a whole, there is a determination never to accept crime, and that is why we have initiated a systematic effort to stop crime.

You have said for three years that criminal gangs will disintegrate, but shootings and explosions are on the rise. When do gangs break up?

– We are now full in our prisons, there have never been so many in jail, we have never condemned so many punishments. But as long as we have an influx of crime and young children also choose the path of crime, we must fix it. That is why I say that a completely strong society is needed.

Published: October 21, 2020 at 18.33