‘For Our Staff’s Safety’: Sweden’s Postal Service Limits Mail Delivery to ‘No-Go’ Migrant District

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Government-owned postal service PostNord has halted mail delivery to some addresses near the immigrant-dominated Stockholm suburb of Rinkeby – a “no-go zone” known for frequent riots, car burnings and a recent attack on police pursuing a terrorist suspect.

“There has been trouble in the area, and we have put in place protective measures to ensure the safety of our employees,” Maria Ibsen, PostNord’s spokesperson, told several local media outlets after they reported the story.

The joint Swedish-Danish-owned postal company decided to stop delivering mail, packages, and leaflets to 200 households in the district of Hjulsta adjacent to Rinkeby on the outskirts of the Swedish capital on March 29. Ibsen admitted that local residents, who were now forced to pick up their mail from a nearby post office branch between the hours of 7 and 10 am, had repeatedly complained since then.

Local media reports quoted local citizens with disabilities who said they lacked the capacity to make the walk, and others who claimed the decision was taken without any police report indicating that postmen were being put in danger.

Unexplained incident

“It’s a highly unusual action, I’ve never seen it happen before,” Camilla Tornkvist, area manager for PostNord, told Svenska Dagbladet newspaper. “It’s been messy and escalating, and after an incident, we took this decision, together with our chief safety officer.”

Tornkvist refused to reveal details of the incident that led to the stoppage, but assured the media that the company is working on resuming deliveries and that 170 households have been reconnected to the postal network.

Police, journalists not safe either

Rinkeby’s population is 90 percent first or second-generation immigrant and its name has long become a byword for a “no-go ghetto” among Swedes, though Little Mogadishu is a more colorful nickname.

Its police station was shut down three years ago after repeated attacks, and local authorities are in the process of constructing a new Iraq-style fortified, bulletproof structure, though have reportedly failed to find a contractor brave enough to risk attacks on its staff during building works.

Despite limited policing, Rinkeby boasts a higher official crime rate than any other Stockholm suburb and was the stage for a large-scale riot that broke out after police arrested a rapper charged with handling firearms in February. Cars were torched, and rioters broke into and raided a supermarket.

Dozens of smaller riots have taken place in the area over the past decade, and TV crews that have used the area as a window into immigration issues in the country have often been assaulted themselves. The Daily Mail reported last week that a police patrol charged with tracking down the address of Rakhmat Akilov, who killed four people in a truck attack in Stockholm on April 7, were pelted with stones by residents.

Are these extremists who threw stones at police, who protected a terrorist? Or are they just ordinary Muslims? Is this an example of how grateful they are to be taken in? Little Mogadishu might be the more apt name - lawlessness reigns supreme.

More than 150,000 immigrants entered the country in 2015, and again in 2016, meaning that the country of 10 million people has accommodated more newcomers per capita than any other in Europe in that period.

Rioting in Swedish No-Go Zone Sparks Debate

Trump was wrong about rioting in Sweden last week,

but it only took 3 days to make him right

Cars were set on fire, police were pelted with stones and civilians were beaten up as violent clashes broke out between rioters and law enforcement in the Stockholm district of Rinkeby on Monday night.

Police say seven or eight vehicles were torched in the suburb of Sweden’s capital following unrest in the area, which has a high immigrant population. It’s unclear if any immigrants were involved in the incident.

The violence was reportedly instigated after police arrested a wanted person at a metro station in Rinkeby at around 8pm. Police say between 30-50 people were involved in the disturbances.

Large crowds gathered and several cars were engulfed in flames as firefighters battled blazing wrecks while strong winds whipped flames in all directions.

A police officer was injured during the fracas, forcing law enforcement to fire several warning shots, according to Swedish public service broadcaster SVT.

No injuries were reported as a result of the shots.

The riot has prompted a heated online debate

over what constitutes a ‘no-go zone.’

Any debate in Sweden regarding Islamization is a good thing. There needs to be an end to the conspiracy of silence by the police, government and media.

Swedish newspaper Aftonbladet traced the rise of the ‘no-go’ tag, previously used in the media to describe the area affected by Monday’s riots, Rinkeby, to the publication of a Swedish police report on disadvantaged suburbs.

The December 2015 report did not specifically use the phrase ‘no-go area’, however, and in the wake of Monday’s disturbances, a Swedish journalist prompted an in-depth online debate about the use and accuracy of the term.

Rinkeby, an area in Stockholm, was the scene of street disturbances on Monday. According to police, an arrest escalated into stone-throwing at patrol units and an “officer was hit in the arm and slightly injured”. Police fired warning shots to disperse the crowd and say no injuries were reported as a result of these shots.

Following widespread coverage of overnight trouble in Stockholm, Ivar Arpi, a writer for Svenska Dagbladet, posed the ‘no-go zone’ question on Twitter:

Translation: “What do you think of the concept? What is missing, what catches?"

Swedish police have denied that there are ‘no-go zones’ in the country, reports Sverige Radio. But the term has provoked an outpouring of opinion online. “It is seriously misleading because it really means something else,” said Swedish journalist Daniel Wiklander.

Twitter users questioned whether the term correctly described areas in Sweden or if its use should be restricted to commentary about war zones. Others asked if the phrase was being misused to target and marginalise poorer urban areas.

“I understand the concept [as] the police don't go in there. Such areas are not as well known in Sweden.”

“I think that semantics are important, as Sweden's situation is discussed in international media and [they] like to use def no-go zones. In the United States no go zones mean a place where police don’t go without a very large [group]”

“‘No-go’ signals war zone and is perhaps too strong”

“In my view, [a no-go area] a neighborhood where law enforcement and health care cannot move freely without threats and residents take the law into their own hands.”

“Worth [looking] up what sort of neighborhoods get the stamp in terms of social class, crime, life of the inhabitants, etc.”

“It captures a feeling, but misses the reality.”

The discussion on ‘no go’ terminology came as Swedish opposition politician Annie Loof attacked government cuts and called for “more police & new legislation” for poorer areas.