After Trump’s ‘Last night in Sweden’: Here are the errors in Fox News' report on Swedish immigration
Uppdaterad 2017-02-23 | Publicerad 2017-02-20
With a very lucid and unclear reference to an occurrence on Friday night, Donald Trump is using Sweden as a discouraging example.
What the president in fact referred to was a report on the conservative news channel Fox News. He has since confirmed it on Twitter.
However, the video broadcasted by Fox contains many errors and exaggerations. Here is the real story.
Is it about a big meatball theft? Or perhaps a reaction from American tourists who thought they had visited Switzerland?
Since Donald Trump mentioned an unspecified occurrence in Sweden on Friday night, social media exploded with more or less funny explanations of what he might have referred to.
Mentions 2010 attack
What the President might have meant when he linked the terror attacks in Nice, Paris and Brussels with the mystical incident in Sweden was on Sunday night long a mystery.
But right before 11pm, local time in Sweden, Trump himself on Twitter confirmed he was referring to a report from ‘Tucker Carlson Tonight’, on the conservative Fox News, the favorite network of the President.
On Friday night, an interview with the filmmaker Ami Horowitz was broadcasted. He had done a report about the effects of how Sweden welcomes refugees in Sweden.
Horowitz interviewed a journalist and two police officers. Amidst a background of dramatic music, they spoke about social problems, conflicts and rising crime, all alleged to have been a result from the wave of refugees.
At the end of the report Ami Horowitz claims “it was not long ago the first Islamic terror attack occurred in the country”. He is probably referring to the suicide attack of Taimour Abdulwahab in the center of Stockholm that occurred more than six years ago on December 11, 2010.
Many errors
But that’s not the only strange thing in the interview with Horowitz. The conversation is full of sweeping statements, exaggerations and – clear errors.
Here is what the filmmaker says about Sweden – and what parts are true:
- Weapons crime and rapes have risen since Sweden opened its borders.
According to the authorities (statistics from Brå – Brottsförebyggande rådets nationella trygghetsundersökning) 13 percent of the Swedish population was subject to a criminal act in 2015.
In comparison with 2014 that’s an increase, but approximately the same as 2005. According to a report from Brå 2015, lethal violence has decreased in Sweden the past years.
In 2015, 85 100 cases of assault were reported to the police. That is a two percent increase compared to the year before.
Also 2015, there were 5 290 reported rapes, a 12 percent decrease compared to 2014.
The police have a special code for incidents where migrants are involved. Thomas Wallberg, commander in chief at the national police headquarters, has been quoted in the Swedish Daily Dagens Nyheter stating refugees are involved only in a few of the police matters in Sweden.
- Refugees are behind the rise of crime, but authorities are not disclosing theses facts.
There are no statistics to support this statement. When it comes to people being convicted for crimes, Brå does not regularly investigate their ethnicity. On the other hand, there is a report from 2005 that shows that people born outside of Sweden are more likely to be suspects in crimes compared to people being born in Sweden. According to the liberal web site Migrationsinfo.se, it has to do with conditions related to their home country, standard of living in Sweden and discrimination within the court system.
- 160 000 refugees arrived in Sweden 2016.
30 000 applied for refugee status in Sweden last year. The year before, however, 163 000 applied for asylum.
- Of the refuges that arrived in Sweden 2016, only 500 are working.
According to the Migration Department, only 494 of the refuges that arrived in Sweden 2015 have got a job. It depended – among other things – on the fact that the authorities didn’t prioritize employment when the wave of immigrants was at its peak.
- In addition to residence and education, the asylum seekers are receiving one of the state’s most generous financial allowances.
Asylum seekers without assets or an employment might get financial assistance. Per day, per adult, it varies from 19 to 71 Swedish kronor (US equvivalent 2.15 to 8 dollars). The maximum sum per month is 2 201 Swedish kronor (250 US dollars).
The national norm for allowance per adult per month is approximately 4 000 Swedish kronor. For asylum seekers, the Migration Department is also offering housing. The same offering – and education – is given to children applying for asylum.
- There are no-go zones in vulnerable suburbs where the police don’t want to enter because it’s “too dangerous”.
In February 2016, the police released a report listing the most vulnerable suburbs in Sweden. That was the beginning of the term “no go-zones” being used. But it wasn’t used in the report, and it’s not true the police are too afraid to enter these areas.