A LETTER FROM REFUGEE TO PRIME MINISTER OF SWEDEN

Khalaf Ali Alkhalaf
2017 / 3 / 15

Dear Stefan Lofven, Sweden Prime Minister

I watched the video in which you have responded to a Swedish kid who asked you a question about how could she help refugees, nevertheless she didn t leave her address so you can reply to her by mail!
Regardless of the fact that this episode was targeting media show, but at the same time, you might be aware that in Sweden you don’t need to be a prime minister to identify the mailing address of somebody, in fact, anyone in Sweden can find anyone’s address if he wants.
The girl’s question and your response, however, reflect the helpful and compassionate spirit of the Swedish people and their genuine sympathy with the afflicted people in other countries.
Nonetheless, if you allow me, dear Prime Minister of Sweden to be honest with you, I would say that what you mentioned in your response to the girl, though its sense of nobility and positive impact which might be brought in to reduce the hatred against refugees, still It is just a "media show", and it won t add anything to any refugee fled to your country. However, what you mentioned in your video is already being done by the Swedish people regardless of your speech.

I myself have cried twice being impressed by Swedish people who helped me without even asking for help, during my first days in Sweden I was with my daughter and we asked someone to tell us the hospital address in Skellefteå-;---;-- city, the person requested us to follow him and I thought that he would tell us about the route, but unlike my thought, he asked us to jump in his car and he dropped us at the hospital. I was touched and surprised, I couldn t ask for his name.
The other time where I cried was when I went to buy a stuff from the supermarket in Jorn village and it was the only shop there, I purchased stuff cost 97 Kr, as I wanted to pay, the cashier informed me that the electronic payment network is out of service, she added that this issue is not-limit-ed to the internal network in the shop, it rather applies to the ATM as well, I stepped aside to think about a solution and allow the next person to check out. I walked out through the door because I simply couldn t figure out a solution when the employer called me to come back and take the stuff! She said that the person who was standing behind me in the queue just paid for my stuff, the person who was buying cigarettes just paid for my stuff and left without allowing me to thank him! That is a lifetime debt, I would never forget it for the rest of my life.

What I have mentioned in my two episodes is only a in the ocean comparing with hundreds of similar stories told by refugees on the kind Swedish citizens who love to help miserable and afflicted people. I even envisage that Swedish people are driven by a slogan that tells "Be pathetic, so we can sympathise with you".

I really understand the recent decisions of your government, which came to control and reduce the influx of refugees, although it made your representative Ms Asa Romson cry while she was reading it in the news conference! I do thank Sweden from the bottom of heart for demonstrating such a high level of responsibility by receiving the largest number of the Syrian refugees who came to Europe, still, I wish you allow me to present you some suggestions which might help refugees without any additional cost to your government.

Firstly, Justice And Equality In Waiting

This means that everyone should get justice and equality in the period of waiting, whether it was during the asylum interview waiting time and´-or-the waiting for the decision of the immigration department after the asylum interview, that decision usually notifies the person if the application for asylum has been accepted´-or-not.

Your government could set some rules to promote a sense of justice in waiting time, justice here does not mean in any sense to shorten the waiting time, it simply advocates equality and standardisation to unify the waiting time duration for asylum applicants. It is unfair as you might agree that an applicant might get the decision within two days while another applicant might wait for two years to get the feedback after his interview, although they both have similar cases!
This could be identified as a systematic arbitrary behaviour dear Mr Lö-;---;--fven, which indicates a considerable disregard of those human beings. Ironically, those people have been already tormented in their countries which lack the fairness and equality, and their policy is built on arbitrary behaviour!

This arbitrary is resulted from exploiting the weakness of those refugees as they are incapable of protesting against such inequity in a country they don’t know its language and even more they don’t have any legal protection towards these arbitrary behaviors which make their destinies and their lives pending on immigration employer s decision, this employee and his department enjoys utmost authority on those applicants’ destinies, utmost power as you know could be simply linked to corruption.

If Sweden, which is known for its reputable inventions was incapable of applying a technical system to achieve equality and justice in applicants’ waiting time, then allow me to offer my assistance as a refugee in this country to put this system, I know my suggestion could be classified as blasphemy according to “Law of Jante”.

Secondly, Learning Language During The Waiting Time

I am not sure if, you know, dear Lofven that the mentioned waiting duration is the best time to learn the language since the asylum requester would have nothing to do meanwhile he[or she always] awaits the decision, he would literally have nothing to do!

It could be argued that learning language is not feasible during this time since the applicant might not be accepted as a refugee and hence to be deported, consequently the expenses managed by your socialist government would be incurred in vain, this is very shallow perception I would say, though Sweden might not have external ambitions, yet I imagine that you know very well countries spend billions of dollars to teach their language to foreigners, thinking that way is absolutely a loss since the waiting period is just a golden chance to learn language as the refugee will be so much excited and energized to have something to do while he is waiting the decision.
The refugee will learn the language in this period faster than the establishment plan period after receiving the decision.
As you know, a language is learnt for one time, what the refugee will learn in this period won t go for nothing and he will be turn save your treasury a huge amount of money, because the refugee in the waiting period is entitled to less than half of the money he is eligible to receive in the establishment plan period, thus he will learn the language in competitive cost. This is a win-win situation, while the government will save remarkable cost, the refugee will benefit time learning the language instead of time wasting.
I know that non-governmental Swedish institutes have recently received a lot of money from your socialist government against teaching language to refugees and to help their integration during the waiting duration, however, any study even not a serious one could show that these institutes haven t done anything to be effective and their main objective is money, regardless of positive outputs on enabling refugees to establish themselves in this country.

Thirdly, To Find A Solution For The "Karakush Justice"* During The Appeal Of An Asylum Decision

As you know the immigration department reports to the Ministry of Justice, and every refugee has the right to appeal a decision in front of the Swedish court which also reports to the Ministry of Justice! This is unfair again, dear Lö-;---;--fven, this inequality between a poor refugee who is powerless and an official employee who has all the power, the latter’s colleague will look into this case and issue a judgment on it, it is likely that they both recognize each other as they work for the same body and it could easily happen that they might have worked together.
Most of the refugees don’t have the ability to find a lawyer for their cases. Ironically, similar circumstances occur in countries where refugees came from escaping fleeing "Karakush justice". Perhaps you ll find an advisor who can explain to you what is meant by the "Karakush justice."

Fourthly, To Stop The Unlimited Authority For The Work Office Employees In Setting The Establishment Plan

Dear Prime Minister, as you know, once the refugee has obtained the permission to stay in Sweden, his "subordination" is changed from the Immigration Department to the Work Office where integration and consolidation project commences.
This is exactly where the tragedy of the “Law of Jante” begins." Seemingly, most of the staff in the Work Office act in light of Item IX, which reads: "You re not to think anyone cares about you” Neither in your skills, experience, education, nor in what you want to do, not even in the work that fits your qualifications and experience, and they believe that the best jobs for a refugee is "Waiter and Waitress" in Swedish restaurants, and it doesn t matter if the employee was a doctor´-or-a lawyer´-or-an engineer in his own country.

The problem is not in how the Work Office employees see things from a very tight eye which is almost blind for the benefit of their country, most of them are not professionally qualified to deal with people from diversified cultural backgrounds and qualifications, the problem lies in giving them full authority to decide what they presume to be proper for this person´-or-that, besides the absence of an independent grievance office outside the Work Office itself in case you wanted to claim a complaint against an employee, in contrary you would be backfiring yourself if you make a complaint against a Work Office employee!

Your democratic and socialist government can track complaints made by refugees during the "subservience" to the Work Office against an employee and just look at the percentage of the times where the decision was in favor of the refugee against the employee--;-- I do not have statistics for this, but I can guarantee it is almost zero.
I have a personal file on this issue and I can claim it should be disgraceful, not to your democratic government only which is keen to defend human rights in faraway lands, but for every Swedish person who pays taxes to finance the Work Office and its employees salaries.

Fifthly, To Keep All Racists Away From All Institutes Related To Refugees

As you might know, racists who are declaring themselves are increasing in Sweden, and their party’s popularity is increasing dramatically, this even forced your democratic socialist government to adopt strict policies towards accepting refugees--;-- and probably--;-- dear Stefan you won t think that I personally understand racists and I think that their ideas don’t lack legitimacy as far as they don’t break the law, but do you think it is fair to recruit racists in jobs dealing with refugees in immigration departments, the work Office, and social security!

If you presume that this is not systematic and intentional behaviour, your government may study profiles of those who want to work in these jobs and make sure racists are kept away from such positions.
A racist employee in refugees’ institutes not only represent a danger for refugees, but also a danger for Sweden s national security, and the global security as well. One racist employee in theses institutes is enough to destroy tens of people lives and forbid them to integrate, it can also promote extremist convictions and push young people to ISIS, when a person finds all doors closed in his face where he can t do anything since he lacks the language and needful knowledge about the rules and regulations which to protect himself, while his rival -the racists employee- knows all he needs to oppress him.

I wish that your intelligence department "Sabo" study the profiles of those Swedish people who have joined the terroristic Islamic groups, you might be astonished when you receive a secret report about the proportion of those who reported problems with institutes that deal with the new arrivals and refugees to realize how critical is this point I am highlighting.

Dear Stefan, before coming to this country, I used to think that the lack of integration for the majority of those who are coming from the Middle East is related to cultural and religious issues in their home countries, but I have realized that the lack of “integration” mainly resulted from a systematic policy prevailing in Europe, being official´-or-not will not change anything in this fact.

We are talking about Sweden, which is according to the statistics of The Huffington site, the less racist country and the most welcoming of the newcomers in Europe!

As a friend of mine commented on one of my posts about discrimination, I wish Sweden survive the rising hatred campaign against migrants and refugees, since it is considered a Global -benchmark- for measuring the escalating levels of the human hatred, if we could say.

Translated by E. A.
Editing by Ibrahim Kadouni
______________________________
*Arabic idiom indicates unfair and bizarre judgment
**The Article was published in Arabic in Elpah e-newspaper on 05-05-2016




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