Holding photos of their kids, Muslim families in Stockholm whose children were taken away from them by social services protested Sunday what they called mistreatment and abuse, demanding that the government take action.
They held banners saying, “Give us our children back,” “Our kids were taken away from us, we were subjected to injustice,” and “We want justice.“
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Mikail Yuksel, head of the Swedish Nuance Party (Partiet Nyans) said that he supports the protest and sympathizes with families whose children have been taken away from their families, calling it a tragedy.
“The social services agency’s justification for taking a child from a Swedish family is not the same as the reason for taking a child from a Muslim and immigrant family. Formidable prejudices come into play for Muslim and immigrant families,” he told Anadolu Agency.
The campaigns started last month after Swedish authorities’ removal of the children of a Syrian refugee family sparked a social media campaign to reunite the family after years of separation.
Several angry social media users tweeted the hashtag “Sweden is a fascist state” in both Arabic and English to highlight the case.
Denial
As the Swedish government denied allegation of kidnapping, Anders Ygeman, the minister for migration and integration, said they are discussing the issue through dialogue with Muslim NGOs.
Ygeman also denied reports that Muslim children in Sweden had been “kidnapped” from their families.
Sunday’s demonstration followed up on a similar protest last week in front of the parliament in Stockholm.
The issue of Swedish authorities taking children away from Syrian families was previously raised in a 2019 report by the Syrian Investigative Reporting for Accountability Journalism (SIRAJ).
It spoke to Syrian parents embroiled in lengthy legal battles in 12 such cases across five cities in Sweden.
Last month, a Somali Muslim refugee won a key victory for Muslims in Europe after Europe’s top rights court ruled that Norwegian authorities violated the Muslim woman’s rights when they removed her child from her care and placed him with a Christian family.