Invandraren

I come from Afhganistan and I am an asylum seekr in Sweden. I have been to Germany and Finland seeking asylum but all I got was a negative from all these countries.

Now finally I am here in Sweden. I have found Sweden to be a very good country. The Swedish system of looking after refugees is probably the best from all coutries I have travelled.

To begin with, here in Sweden, they really look after you. You are like any other ordinary Swedish citizen working here. You do not feel the gap between someone working and someone not working. They try to make us fit into the society by making live within the society itself whereas in Finland and Germany we stayed in the camps.

Secondly, the Swedish people are so kind. They always want to help refugees. By right I was supposed to have been sent to the country where I first sought asylum but I had indicated to them that I have beeen denied asylum so what is the reason of sending me back and they still looked at my case even though I do not know what decision they will make.

Last but not least, refugees we are free here to buy and cook what we want. Unlike in other countries where you have to eat from a restaurant in the camp the food they have cooked, whether you like the food or not. So here you can even cook and eat food from your country of origin.

On the other side, I feel the time frame for processsing asylum cases takes too long here. Many of us have got so frustrated with it.

My name is Katty*(not her real name). I came to Sweden in 2006. Needless to say life has not been easy for almost two years now. I came here for asylum and attended SFI classes. I could not continue my education because I still had to do the last stage of the language.
However, lucky was not on my side when I got a negative on my case. I then decided to go into hiding because I sensed that the authorities wanted to send me back to my country. Now im an illegal and money is hard to come by when you are illegal. I live with friends. I cannot acccess any services here in Sweden. I cannot drive legally, and cannot get a job to make a proper living.

Tragically the only way to legalize my stay is to get married to a Swede. However, I have heard many people say its not easy to get the right man here, you will always get men who want to use and leave you with the burden of pregnancy. I’m so scared in doing that. Please help!

She was brought to Sweden illegally. We will call her Mary for security reasons. She sold all her belongings when she decided to come to Sweden. This money was meant to pay the agency who was to bring her here. She arrived here at the beginning of the year 2007. She was full of hopes and dreams. She was coming from Africa.
When she arrived here she found it so terrible with the weather and everything. It was like a new born baby experiencing or discovering a new world. Everything seemed new and very strange to her. She spoke not even a single Swedish word and had no transport. She did not know where to go,who and where to ask.
Finally, she managed to reach the immigration authorities for asylum. However, after seeking asylum she has been waiting for too long with no response from the migration authorities. She thinks everthing is not as rosy as people back home assume. She find it hard to learn the language because she says the society is not open. The only time she make contacts on the language is at school but the biggest problem is that everyone is a learner here. She feels so isolated at the end of the day and strongly advises other would-be immigrants to know that coming to Sweden is not as easy as some people make it to be.

Many will agree with the fact that the issue of migration is now an issue that even the children are now familiar with. Long before Europe and other countries such as the USA,Canada,Australia among others experienced a continous increase in the rate of migration the issue of migration has not been as ‘hot’ as it is in this century.

Migration comes through different reasons which may include family  reunions, adoptions, marriages, people running away from wars, natural disasters. However the bulk of immigrants as observed in recent research its mainly refugees and asylum seekeres and many of them its because of political or religious reasons. And that in itself shows how unstable the world is becoming. And below is a true testimony of an asylum seeker in Sweden from Africa and is going to share with us what led him to end up being in the tunnel of asylum seekers.

I am a twenty six year old man and originally coming from Africa. I grew up in the rural areas under a single parent. We lived off land and farming. My mother worked in the farms to raise my school fees and other necessities that we needed at home. She managed to send me to school and later on I trained as secondary school teacher.

It was during my teacher training that I worked with a whites from Europe Sweden. My working or affiliation with these white people  was the beginning of problems that have landed me here in Sweden. I was labelled unpatriotic for affiliating with these people whom the government have declared enemies of the state by the government. And as a result I was seen as cohabiting with spies. Many times we would be interogated for no apparent reasons and even though we carried papers which authorised the research and our works.

It was around 2002 that my colleague decided to go back to Sweden as it was becoming unstable politically for a white man in this country. I had to do the research on my own now and more threats came my way, some  and some not.  The situation  when the Head of state publicly announced that he was to instill ’fear and hatred’ into the heart of a whiteman. It was at this time that the threats became reality.

I would receive phone threats and threats to be killed. I was accused of spying for the with these people. Worse off, I was doing the research within an area deemed a stronghold of the ruling party since my country attained its independence. It was after I had attended a workshop, which was part of the programme I was doing research on that I received a very serious threat for the first time from a secret agent. He clearly mentioned to me thatwas not welcome to the workshop and that I should know that my head will be on a platter before the end of the year.

It was from here that I started smelling a rat. It was now scaring, the fact that I have been threatened by someone from the President’s office. I decided to flee to a neighbouring country for two weeks after which I came back and resolved to fight the despotism by the government and that is when I resolved to join the opposition party.This brought more than problems than solutions to me as during this time I lost so many friends especially from the ruling party who could not stomach my new politically ideology. The Member of parliament also threatened to struck me off the Ministry of Education’s payroll as he accused me of using the classroom to teach politics. The so called ‘greeenbombers’ , the ruling party’s military wing were assigned to pull the carpet under my feet as they said it was clear that my affiliation with the researchers from Europe had more to do with politics than the research.

The threats continued coming in all spheres but I vowed to fight the despotism. It was eight months after I had become an active member in the opposition that I was abducted at the local business center and whisked to a bush. I was made to lie on the ground and was assalted with all kinds of objects. Many questions were asked about my affiliation with the white researchers and my sudden joining to the opposition. I was stripped off my clothes and one of the youths urinated all over my body when I was unconscious. The beating lasted for almost an hour. It was during this time that they took my two cameras and some material I had written for the research. It was then that sensed that my life was coming to an end.

I then arranged with my colleague that I flee to Sweden. Since that time I have never had a peace of mind, I feel so useless in life and I just cannot see my self living a normal life. The memories come everyday, and worse-still when I fled from my country I had thought I would find a quick assurance to safety in Sweden. However, I was ill-informed as its almost three months now since I placed my application with the relevant authorities to be granted asylum. I’m beginning to doubt if I will granted safety here, and the imagination of being sent home to experience that barbaric torture again, this is the stress that I live with everyday. I cannot concentrate at school, (SFI). Some of my colleagues whom we came at the same time has been interviewed and granted asylum, and these are mainly from Iraq. I have a question for many of you viewing this site to help me answer.
-Why does it has to take long to grant safety to asylum seekers in Sweden?