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Greek aid groups: Swedish government blames the law does not stand up
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This is a discussion article. The author is responsible for the opinions expressed in the text, not Aftonbladet.
Photo: TT
A woman escapes with her son from the fire in the Moria refugee camp. The Swedish government claims that they cannot receive refugees from the camp. It is serious that they hide behind false claims to avoid the humanitarian consequences of the decision, write representatives of Greek aid groups.
DEBATE. After the catastrophic fire in the Moria refugee camp last week, the exposure of the tens of thousands of people who sought refuge in Europe in search of safety has gotten even worse. Several countries are now lining up to receive some of these people and help urgently in this humanitarian crisis.
At the same time, the Swedish government is completely wrong in stating that it cannot help. It is serious for the Swedish government to hide behind completely false claims to avoid being responsible for the humanitarian consequences of the decision.
Both on the Greek islands and on the mainland, children live without safe access to water or food and without the possibility of good care and treatment. Thousands of children are homeless and many children we know testify to suicide attempts, extreme vulnerability, and appalling abuse.
The risk of exploitation and being exploited by ruthless human traffickers is great and we now have an urgent need to provide these children with a safer environment and a legally secure process for asylum or family reunification.
Now the children who lived alone in Moria have urgently moved to the mainland, but this measure is far from a permanent solution. Furthermore, there are still more than 2,500 unaccompanied children living completely outside the protection system in Greece.
The Greek government, together with EU Commissioner Ylva Johansson, has repeatedly called on EU Member States to accept children who now live in a situation of extreme vulnerability.
The Swedish government now uses poorly constructed excuses in the form of legal obstacles that prevent Sweden from contributing. These arguments have not only been refuted, they were obviously not an obstacle before, when Sweden had a less restrictive immigration policy, as in the evacuation of Macedonia in 1999.
It is true that the Swedish constitution prevents the government from asking the Swedish Migration Agency to pick up these children from Greece under the Dublin Agreement, but the government is free to host a group of refugees outside the Dublin Agreement in a crisis situation such as Germany, Portugal, France, Finland, Bulgaria. , Ireland, Belgium, Luxembourg, Slovenia, Lithuania and Norway.
Now more than ever, European coordination is necessary for the protection and support of unmarried children within the EU. Shared responsibility to protect these children is the only way to create the conditions for sustainable integration and family reunification, something that is ultimately vital for these children.
If the Swedish government sticks to this decision, it undermines the entire Swedish foreign policy ambition of cooperation, solidarity and human rights. It makes all the previous statements about the importance of shared responsibility within the EU seem ridiculous.
The question of whether Sweden should participate and provide solidarity in a safer place for these children living in extreme vulnerability is not a question of whether the government can help or not. It is a question of whether the government wants to help.
If there is a will, there are no laws, conventions or ordinances preventing Stefan Löfven from contacting Commissioner Ylva Johansson and Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis and telling them “of course we will get up.”
So let’s ask the question: does the government want to help solve the acute humanitarian crisis that is occurring here in Greece and help some children to get out of this terrible situation, or does the government just not want to help? There is no other question to answer. If the policy of the Swedish government is to turn a blind eye to the suffering of these children, they should at least be honest about it.
Yonous Muhammadi, Greek refugee forum. Child 10 laureate 2020
Sofia Kouvelaki, The Home Grecia project. Child 10-pristagare 2020
Nantina Tsekeri, Defense of children Greece. Child 10-pristagare 2020
Jacob Flärdh, Secretary General, Child 10
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