The Militant(logo) 
    Vol.60/No.5           February 5, 1996 
 
 
Sweden: Hundreds Protest Deportations  

BY INGE HINNEMO AND MARIA HAMBERG

STOCKHOLM, Sweden - When the police came to Asele January 12 to enforce the government's decision to deport the two Kurdish families the church bell rang. The police used violence to get the two mothers and their ten children on the waiting bus and to fight off the local people trying to stop them. An 18-year-old son managed to escape by climbing over the bus roof and was helped into hiding by his young friends. The two fathers had already gone into hiding.

People in Asele were shocked by the police action. Sven- Olof Westin told the Swedish daily Svenska Dagbladet that he thought he was in Chile after "seeing cops beating kids."

Asele is a community of 4,000 people in northern Sweden some 175 kilometers (110 miles) from the university town of Umea. The two Kurdish families named Sincari came to Sweden in 1990 and 1991. In Asele they have had a better chance than many refugees to develop normal relations with other working people. The children had spent several years in Swedish schools. After an earlier decision to deport the families they were allowed to live in the church sanctuary for 16 months.

When the social democratic government decided anew to deport the two families to Turkey on January 12, a chartered plane was already waiting at a military airfield.

"We were ready in Umea and just waiting to go out and block the airport to stop the deportations," Mikael Wallgren said in an interview. "Then we found out they had taken them to the small military airport in Lycksele and we couldn't go there. It is very clear the police were well prepared to get these families out at any price."

Prime Minister Ingvar Carlsson defended the action saying the two fathers had lied about their country of origin as being Iraq, when they first arrived in Sweden. The Swedish authorities claim the families come from Turkey. Two weeks before the government's decision, Svenska Dagbladet published a major article by Carlsson and Immigration Minister Leif Blomberg accusing refugees of using their children as "spokespeople" to win support.

The same day the Sincari families were deported, Leif Blomberg visited the Ostra high school with 1,800 students in Umea. "From the morning, protest lists circulated at the school," 16-year-old student Johanna Salander said in an interview. "All students and teachers filled the high school auditorium and everyone who spoke criticizing the deportation decision was met with applause. When the minister tried to sneak out the back door to avoid the press and the students waiting at the front several teachers blocked his way."

"We want justice!" chanted many youth as they marched through Asele on January 14. During this protest they collected money to travel to Gothenburg, Sweden's second largest city, to take part in another demonstration against violence and racism that had been called for January 16. Immigration minister Blomberg was scheduled to speak at this event. "We want to show him that we are not giving up" 15 - year-old Emma Westberg told the TT news agency.

Church officials who had initiated this action, however, canceled it, saying it risked being turned into a political confrontation against Blomberg.

But 50 people - the majority under the age of 18 - still insisted on making the 15-hour trip to Gothenburg and did protest.

In spite of bomb threats against the cathedral in Gothenburg and demobilizing by the media all day, 700 people attended a gathering outside the church and a service inside on the evening of January 16. Many Kurdish immigrants were part of the crowd.

We asked Annika Haglund, 20, from Asele how they planned to continue the fight. "We don't know how," she said. "But we do know that we have to. If we give in nothing gets better."

One of the Kurdish immigrants told us, "If the Sincaris had been rich they wouldn't have been deported."

On January 17 the immigration authorities announced that as many as 10,000 immigrants already with permanent residential permits could be deported because of giving false information. Ever since 1989 the right to asylum has come under severe attack by social democratic and conservative governments alike. The number of deportations has risen as thousands have come to Sweden fleeing the war in Yugoslavia and oppression in other countries.

The protests against these government policies continued. On January 20, some 600 people gathered outside the Swedish parliament in Stockholm to denounce the deportations. "I hate the police because they came to take our friends away," said Natalie Westerlund, a young woman from Asele who made the 800-kilometer trip along with two busloads to join the action. "I hate Blomberg, Carlsson, and the entire government because they made this decision."

"We have to fight because there will be others," Annika Haglund said. "I wouldn't be able to stand myself if I didn't do anything. And you cannot let others think for you."

Inge Hinnemo and Maria Hamberg are members of the Swedish Metal workers union. Catharina Tirsén, a member of the same union, contributed to this article.

 
 
 
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