8 More Areas in Sweden Added to List of so-called 'No-Go Zones’

In keeping with my sincere desire to always search for the truth,

I present an article which directly contradicts one I posted yesterday.

This one is from RT, so read with some degree of caution.

Note: The Swedish police don't call these 'no-go zones' but,

like French police, use different terms to identify them.

'No-go zones' is almost certainly a hyperbolic term, nevertheless,

the problems in these zones are serious enough for the Swedish

police to make public. Swedish police are normally very

protective, even secretive, when it comes to Muslims.

Rinkeby, Stockholms ln, Sweden © Global Look Press

A new report from the Swedish police lists eight additional areas as being “especially vulnerable," where it is more difficult for law enforcement and other emergency services to do their job.

In 2015, the Swedish police released a report describing 53 districts throughout the country as “vulnerable," and 15 listed as “especially vulnerable." Vulnerable areas are described as having high rates of crime and poverty where police face unique challenges and have to adapt their approach. These neighborhoods may also host violent religious extremism, and locals don’t report crime to police for fear of retribution.

Vulnerable areas are described as having high rates of crime

and poverty where police face unique challenges.

They may also host violent religious extremism, and locals don’t

report crime to police for fear of retribution.

The new report, which has not yet been made public but was seen by journalists from the newspaper DN, adds eight more areas to the list, raising the number to 23.

53 districts that are vulnerable is significant number, as is 23 that re 'especially vulnerable'. I assume, but it's not clear from this article, that the 23 are included in the 53. It is also not clear what exactly causes the police to change the designation from 'vulnerable' to 'especially vulnerable'. But since Swedish police are requesting 100 more police, there is obviously a problem. Mind you, 100 police would only mean an average of 2 additional police persons per 'vulnerable' area, or 4 per 'especially vulnerable' area. Or perhaps police want to form 4 or 5 units of 25 or 20 police scattered around the country available for rapid deployment to hot zones? That might make more sense.

These new areas are in the cities of Boras, Gothenburg, Landskrona, Malmö, Uppsala and in the capital, Stockholm.

According to Linda Staaf, head of the national police NOA's intelligence department, these areas should have been classified as “especially vulnerable” earlier, but there was not enough information on them available.

“In comparison to the last report we now have more knowledge and a better picture,” she told DN.

Police have asked for more resources in dealing with these troubled neighborhoods.

“We know how to work when it comes to the problems in this area and our two previous especially vulnerable areas, that's not the problem. But in order to do that in the right way we ought to be at least another hundred staff,” Malmö police chief Stefan Sintéus told DN.

These areas, which often host a large immigrant or foreign-born population, have been described as “no-go zones” by media. But this label has been rejected by the Swedish police, who admit that while there are difficulties in certain neighborhoods, they are not ones in which they cannot effectively work. The label has also been criticized as being a hyperbole that compares parts of a prosperous, industrial nation, with a still relatively low crime rate, to a war zone.

But for some service providers at least, the term “no-go zones” is more literal. 

In March, the president of Sweden's ambulance union called for enhanced security for his personnel when working in the so-called “no-go zones,” saying first responders need “special” military-grade equipment to withstand the dangers of the mainly migrant-populated areas. 

And in April, the government-owned postal service PostNord has halted mail delivery to some addresses near the troubled Stockholm suburb of Rinkeby, where a large-scale riot took place earlier this year.

Child Crisis in Calais

Child refugees in Calais ‘Jungle’ are

‘giving up’ on reaching Britain

A young migrant pulls a trolley in a muddy field at a camp of makeshift shelters for migrants and asylum-seekers from Iraq, Kurdistan, Iran and Syria, called the Grande Synthe jungle, near Calais, France. © Yves Herman / Reuters

Dozens of unaccompanied refugee children stranded in the French port town of Calais are giving up on ever reaching Britain, despite severe shortages of shelter and aid in the makeshift camp.

According to the largest charity helping refugee children in the region, France Terre d’Asile, up to 35 unescorted minors have been turned away every day for the past three months because there are no beds for them in the emergency shelters.

And since July, almost 95 percent of children who have come to the charity’s accommodation in the town of Saint Omer, a half-hour drive from Calais, seem to want to stay in France rather than travel onwards to the UK. Last year, only 15 percent of the roughly 1,500 registered refugee children traveling unaccompanied said the same.

“We do feel powerless,” the shelter’s director, Jean-Francois Roger, told the Guardian.

“It is very hard psychologically for my colleagues who have to turn them away. It is difficult to explain to them why there are no places.

“It will be worse when it gets colder, when there is water up to your knees in the camp.”

Every time a child is sent away France Terre d’Asile calls in the social services, but they too are stretched to breaking point. Many end up sleeping in tents back at the camp.

Roger and his colleagues have been demanding more emergency beds from local authorities, but the political situation in France is not seen as being sympathetic towards refugees. The far-right Front National has an ever-bigger influence in the area.

“A few things have happened that have persuaded children to stay,” Roger told the Guardian.

“Since July, and the Brexit vote, the migrants are wondering what will happen to them if they turn up in Britain. We are not sure it is connected to Brexit, but there is a fear of what kind of welcome foreigners will have there now.”

In previous years, most of the children staying with Roger’s organization would return to Calais after a five-day break and attempt to cross the English Channel once more. But heightened security and the British-sponsored building of a four-meter high wall around the camp have made the children’s journey far more dangerous.

“It is getting harder and harder to cross the frontier,” Roger added.

“There is a bigger police presence, there are more checks, the barrier is bigger. It was always dangerous, but it is much more dangerous now for the children, and so they are forced to take much greater risks. It is also more dangerous in the camp in Calais itself. You have 10,000 people in a confined space and tensions are getting worse, and the children are more vulnerable.”

Charities have also been actively discouraging children from attempting the illegal crossing, and are instead advising them to request asylum in France, where the process is often easier and swifter to complete.

The groups of unaccompanied children arriving in Calais are growing, with a census by the Help Refugees charity revealing almost 1,200 minors reached the camp in the last month. The youngest of them was just eight years old, and a staggering 87 percent of the children were alone.