Becoming Something Different

Sweden has taken in more asylum seekers per capita than any other European country — 160,000 last year alone. Refugees are now part of the landscape, even in small towns. And nearly everybody, not just those working with aid groups, is encountering the newcomers.

In the southern town of Ronneby, Dagmar Nordberg is giving Swedish lessons to Waliullah Hafiz (both pictured above), who goes by Wali, at her kitchen table. 

The 60-year-old Swedish museum director met this 23-year-old migrant from Kabul on a train platform in a nearby village on a freezing cold day last November.

"He was standing there in a T-shirt, with his jeans and his cotton shoes," Nordberg recalls. "And I thought he was just one of these boys playing computer games all day long. 

And I've come to that age where I can say things, so I just passed him by and I said, 'It's winter!' "

Hafiz says he had so many problems he couldn't think about the weather. And besides, he didn't own a jacket. Nordberg remembers he was so stressed that he was sweating, but he replied politely.

"He said, 'I know, ma'am,'" she says. "That was the first time I heard Wali's voice."

Nordberg says she understood then that he was a lost refugee and she could either go on with her life or help him. "I just knew I had this choice here and now, and whatever I do will have consequences," she says.

Four months later, the two are having lunch in Nordberg's cozy cabin in a southern Swedish forest next to the Baltic Sea. There is a whole fresh salmon and thick brown bread.

Hafiz holds a university degree in electrical engineering. Back in Kabul, he had a successful business with a contract to supply the Afghan army with propane gas canisters.

One day, the Taliban came and promised him a bigger house and a fancy car if he'd let them fill the army's empty gas bottles. 

Hafiz says they wanted to turn those bottles into bombs and expected him to smuggle them back onto the base through the numerous checkpoints, using his security pass.

Hafiz refused. He breaks down as he tells the story of men coming to his house afterward and seeing his wife and newborn son and attacking him. 

He shows me a 3-inch pink scar down the back of his head. He says one of the Taliban hit him with the butt of his Kalashnikov rifle and left him for dead.

When he awoke from a coma 13 days later, his mother told him he had to get out of Afghanistan.

"So there you have a young man, an educated electrician," says Nordberg, "doing a good living, having a nice little family. And then, all of a sudden, his existence is blown to pieces."

Hafiz, is now living with other refugees in a town near Ronneby, wants to bring his wife and child to Sweden as soon as he can. 

Nordberg is helping him with his asylum application, but the process is slow because there are tens of thousands of applicants.

For now, Hafiz helps Nordberg with jobs around her property. 

He jokes that she is the only one who understands his English. 

But there's another guest at lunch on this day — Jörgen Andersson, a forester. 

He clears trees in the surrounding forest using a horse, not a tractor, to pull the logs out one by one.

Hafiz has applied to be Andersson's apprentice. 

If his application is accepted, the Swedish government will pay him to learn forestry.

Andersson says he never thought of taking an Afghan refugee as an apprentice — especially one who'd never been in a forest before — but he's glad he can help.

"I'm happy to do that," he says. "If he feels better, I feel better."

Hafiz says that in Sweden, he finally feels like a human being again. Two weeks later, the Swedish government has approved his apprenticeship.

Confiscating Valuables

COPENHAGEN (Reuters) - Denmark's parliament passed measures on Tuesday aimed at deterring refugees from seeking asylum, including confiscating valuables to pay for their stay, despite protests from international human rights organizations.

The measures, which also include extending family reunification among refugees from one year to three years, are the latest sign that the Nordic welcome for refugees is waning as large numbers flee war in Africa and Middle East for a better life in Europe.

The "jewelry bill" is the latest attempt by Denmark's minority center-right government to curb immigration to a country that took in a record 20,000 refugees last year.

Under the bill, refugees could keep possessions amounting to 10,000 Danish crowns ($1,450), raised from 3,000 crowns after criticism from human rights organizations. 

Valuables of special emotional value such as wedding rings will be exempt.

The Liberals Party government has just 34 out of 179 seats in parliament and depends on support of rightist parties, including the anti-immigration Danish People's Party (DF), to pass laws.

During a three and a half hour debate, dissenting voices from small left wing parties were heard including from Red Green Alliance.

But the bill passed with an overwhelming majority, backed by the main center-left opposition party Social Democrats, highlighting a shift to the right in Denmark's political landscape thanks to DF's popularity and rising concern over refugee numbers.

"I wouldn't say that I have become racist or anything," said Poul Madsen, a taxi driver, before the bill was passed. "But I may be more aware of the fact that this has some downsides and may be a potential problem for our society and our economy."

Denmark is not the only one Nordxic country trying to shut its doors to migrants. 

Sweden, which took in over 160,000 refugees last year, the most per capita in Europe, introduced checks on its border to Denmark at the start of the year.

Swedish Prime Minister Stefan Lofven promised on Monday more resources for police after an employee was stabbed to death at a refugee center for unaccompanied minors. 

A minor was arrested on suspicion of murder or manslaughter after the incident in western Sweden, local TT news agency reported.

Refugees Bring Disease With Them

Danish authorities have warned hospitals over possible outbreak of infectious diseases as several cases of diphtheria, tuberculosis and malaria carried by the refugees have already been registered. 

“The infection can be very dangerous if one isn’t vaccinated against it. 

The dangerous type is very rare and we last saw it in Denmark in 1998,” Kurt Fuursted, spokesperson for the Danish State Serum Institute (SSI) told Metroxpress referring to the potential return of diphtheria. 

This disease was last diagnosed in Denmark about 20 years ago.

“There is no doubt that infectious diseases are coming in with the refugees that we aren’t used to. 

There have been discussions on whether all refugees who come to Denmark should be screened," he added. 

At present Denmark doesn’t follow the World Health Organization (WHO) recommendation to vaccinate incoming migrants, unlike some other European countries. 

“Refugees, asylum-seekers and migrants should be vaccinated without unnecessary delay according to the immunization schedule of the country in which they intend to stay for more than a week,” reads a joint 

...WHO-UNHCR-UNICEF...

guidance on general principles of vaccination of refugees, asylum-seekers and migrants in Europe, published on November 23 last year. 

It urges countries to provide migrants access to the “full vaccination schedule.” 

The immigration officials and the Danish Health and Medicines Authority, a supreme healthcare authority in Denmark, are expected to review screening policy, according to Health Minister Sophie Lunde.

In recent months, Denmark has begun to tighten the screws in an effort to curb the refugee influx. 

On Thursday the Danish Parliament is set to vote on a bill proposing to strip refugees of valuables, including cash and jewelry, to cover the costs the country bears in connection with their stay.

It would allow authorities to claim individual items valued at more than 10,000 kroner (US$1,450). 

In the Danish cities of Thisted, Sonderborg and Haderslev, local club owners have started to introduce ‘language controls’, turning people away if they don’t speak Danish, English or German. 

In 2015, some 18,000 refugees sought asylum in Denmark according to the migration agency, a far cry from almost 163,000 refugees in the neighboring Sweden.

Maybe Germany Should Build A Wall

BERLIN — Germany, overwhelmed by an unprecedented wave of refugees, reintroduced controls along its border with Austria, in a desperate attempt to defuse a crisis that is testing the limits of European solidarity.

The surprise move, announced late Sunday afternoon by Interior Minister Thomas de Mazière, marks a significant escalation of the crisis. Berlin has effectively suspended the EU’s open borders treaty, which many view as the embodiment of European integration.

Germany expects to take in up to 800,000 asylum seekers this year, quadruple the number in 2014. It is calling on other European countries to accept more refugees, a demand that has met with stiff resistance across much of the continent.

Some countries have refused on cultural and religious grounds, while others cite concerns that Islamic terrorists could be posing as refugees. That has left a handful of countries, including Germany, Austria and Sweden, bearing much of the burden.

The Austrian-German border, which stretches along the southern and eastern frontier of the state of Bavaria, has been the main entry point for asylum seekers to Germany.

It is also the most important economic corridor in Europe, linking Italy and southeastern Europe with Germany and the rest of Europe north of the Alps.

Berlin’s willingness to erect border controls there, risking serious economic repercussions, suggests the crisis has strained Germany’s resources to a much greater degree than it has acknowledged.

Berlin has repeatedly demanded that other European counties, especially those in the east, accept more refugees. So far, however, the calls have gone unheeded, as countries such as Slovakia, the Czech Republic and Poland have resisted accepting more than a token number.

For those countries, open borders with Germany allow them unfettered access to Europe’s largest economy, a key economic advantage.

Last week, German Economy Minister Sigmar Gabriel noted the importance of the Schengen agreement to the region’s economy, an unusual threat that underscored Berlin’s frustration with the refusal of governments there to do more.

Wish I Was In The Land of Germany

Germany's vice chancellor said his country could take in 500,000 refugees annually for the next several years, one day after Hungary's prime minister called on Berlin to close its doors to thousands from the Middle East, Africa, and Asia who have poured into Eastern Europe in an effort to reach more prosperous nations.

The BBC reported that Sigmar Gabriel also repeated demands that other European countries accept quotas designed to ensure that Germany does not have to take in the lion's share of refugees. Germany, which has the largest economy in Europe, is expecting to take in 800,000 refugees in 2015, more than four times last year's total.

An estimated 20,000 refugees entered Germany via Hungary by train, bus, and on foot this past weekend alone.

Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban warned in an interview with Austrian television late Monday that millions of refugees would descend upon the continent if what he called Germany's "open door" policy continued.

He also claimed that many who had passed through his country via the so-called "Balkan Corridor" were not in dire straits, but rather were attracted by Germany's generous benefit programs. For that reason, Orban warned, the refugee surge risked placing an intolerable financial burden on members of the 28-nation E.U.

"As long as Europe cannot protect its external borders it makes no sense to discuss the fate of those flowing in," Orban said.

"I am happy that Germany has become a country that many people outside of Germany now associate with hope," German Chancellor Angela Merkel told a Berlin news conference Monday. "What isn't acceptable in my view is that some people are saying this has nothing to do with them. This won't work in the long run. There will be consequences although we don't want that."

Despite Merkel's steadfast support for letting in refugees, the episode has exposed tensions not only within the E.U., but within Merkel's own coalition government.