In early June, the European Union adopted the Solidarity Mechanism, under which all Member States are expected to normalize illegal migration. At the same time, the EU is making it more difficult for asylum seekers to obtain asylum, by prolonging the procedure and outsourcing the processing of applications primarily to transit countries in North Africa. With more than four million Ukrainian refugees to be received by the EU within the context of an ongoing systemic economic crisis and the hopelessness of the conflict in Ukraine, the EU leaders have once again demonstrated their inability to respond adequately to serious crises and their lack of providing adequate solutions to the geopolitical challenges they face.
While European Union leaders were busy discussing the new migration pact, on June 8, an immigrant in Annecy, France, injured several people, including children, with a knife on a playground, and three days later, on the outskirts of Stockholm, two people were killed and two others wounded in shootouts between gangs using automatic weapons.
Both crimes were committed by persons of immigrant backgrounds. However, the dissimilarity of the perpetrators' refugee status, origin and religion also highlights the lack of a functioning paradigm for the individual and community integration of immigrants. The perpetrator of the terrorist attack in France is a permanent resident in Sweden, and the participants in the gang war are Swedish citizens.
Sweden's government, elected last September, determined the fight against criminal gangs of with immigrant backgrounds to be a top priority. Confidence in the new leadership was severely damaged by the clashes last Christmas and on New Year's Eve. While the country's liberal migration and criminal justice system has produced a shocking subculture of violence, Prime Minister Ulf Kristersson has promised a paradigm shift in the criminal justice system, but so far there are few signs of a turnaround.
Young people, who enjoy immunity from criminal prosecution under Swedish law, are increasingly being sent to commit acts of violence, as was the case in the recent attack in Stockholm.
Max Akerwall, the Stockholm police chief, said that arresting a gang leader is not the answer because it creates a vacuum that leads to armed clashes between rival groups. The police currently have fifty-two such gangs in their sights. A whole violent subculture is therefore developing, for which the Swedish liberal immigration and justice system is indirectly responsible. According to the police, the inter-gang conflicts, which are often rooted in the rivalry for control of illegal drug sales, have degenerated into a cycle of shoot-outs. The term 'no-go zone' is deeply contested in Sweden, but in all cases it refers to a neighborhood where the authorities (and even ambulances) cannot enter for fear of attack. The number of foreign-born Swedes has doubled in the last two decades reaching two million, or one fifth of the population.
The existence of parallel societies in Sweden was acknowledged by Magdalena Andersson before she lost her post as prime minister in 2022.
„We live in the same country, but in a completely different reality," the left-wing politician said in relation to last year's wave of violence. Sweden's Social Democrats have been in power for twenty-eight of the last forty years, including during the migration crisis of 2015-16.
Abdelmasih Hannun, the knife-wielder in Annecy, who stabbed six people, including four young children, is of Syrian origin and was granted refugee status in Sweden in November 2013. However, his application for Swedish citizenship was rejected because of his previous service in the Syrian army (presumably as a conscript). He then legally entered France in 2022, where he applied for asylum a second time at the end of November. Four days before the attack, he was informed that he could not be granted refugee status in France because he already had applications in three other countries: Sweden, Italy and Switzerland. His case highlights the chaotic nature of EU asylum policy. During his stay in France, Hannun was apparently homeless. Even four days before the attack, he was subjected to a police check for washing in Lake Annecy. He was arrested on charges of attempted murder and armed revolt.
A lethal shootout between criminal gangs took place in Stockholm three days after the adoption of the migrant distribution mechanism by EU leaders. Swedish Justice Minister Gunnar Strommer called the incident a case of domestic terrorism.
Last year, 126 shootings were registered claiming 26 lives in and around Stockholm only. 31 attacks with explosives also took place. The data show a rise compared to 2021, when the attacks resulted in 21 deaths. In 2022, there were 388 shootings across the country, resulting in 61 deaths, and 90 attacks with explosives, a one-third increase in fatalities compared to the previous year. According to police statistics, there have been 144 shootings so far this year, with 18 fatalities. 41 people, including passers-by have also been injured in those shootings.
According to the police, most of those arrested for violent acts are children, with some 1200 of those “child soldiers” being currently at large. By comparison, while children in England have criminal responsibility over the age of 10, in Sweden the same age limit is 15 years, under which offenders cannot be punished. Half of those arrested during the raids after the Christmas murders committed in Stockholm were school-age minors. Their method of operation is making thermos bombs: these explosives are home-made and transported in thermoses, which do not raise suspicion in the hands of children.
The two terrorist attacks in June show that EU leaders do not understand the consequences of mass migration. Uneducated and illegal migrants arrive in Europe with false expectations, hoping that their lives will be easier, better and richer there. The reality for them, however, is living on the margins of society and getting tangled up in a life of crime.
With decisions such as the so-called solidarity mechanism, the EU is reinforcing illegal migrants’ illusions by sending the signal that Europe has a moral obligation to receive them.
European societies have been burdened by inflation and recession since the start of the war in Ukraine. While it is clear that the economy and demography of Western Europe is built on the resettlement and social utilization of immigrants, a significant proportion of illegal immigrants are unwilling to meet these expectations. The EU is playing an exclusionary game by which it ultimately has little to gain: it puts barriers in the way of migration, but accepts those who pass through the filters, hoping to use illegal migrants to offset labor shortages and demographic decline in Europe. This strategy has so far failed overall.
There is a shortage of skilled labor also in the countries of origin, there is potential for economic development in agriculture and industry, but Europe is attractive because of a false hope of an easier life. So, instead of investing their efforts in their country, young men choose to risk leaving their country and follow that illusion.
The current model of migration is a problem and the EU has no solution for it. Therefore, each European country must form its own migration policy based on its own interests.
Authors: lead researchers of the Szazadveg Foundation
