90 Per Cent of Moroccan ‘Minor’ Migrants in Sweden Are Adults
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A new report claims just ten per cent of Moroccan “minor” migrants who have come to Sweden in recent years were actually minors, the rest adults.
Around 1,800 single Moroccan men have applied for asylum in Sweden in the last seven years but following closer cooperation with the government of Morocco the number has fallen to 55 so far this year, Swedish broadcaster SVT reports.
Christian Frödén, group manager at the border police in Stockholm praised the cooperation with the Moroccan police who have allowed their Swedish counterparts access to fingerprint databases saying, “When we find their identity they leave the country and move on to other cities in Europe such as Barcelona or Paris. They do not want the police to know who they are because then they can be punished and be expelled to Morocco.”
The figures show the vast majority of those claiming to be children — that status comes with additional rights and protections — are indeed adults.
One Moroccan migrant who was caught lying about his age was 22-year-old Ali who came to Sweden last year claiming to be 16.
Ali told SVT that other migrants had encouraged him to lie about his age in order to have a better chance at getting benefits from the Swedish government but after the Moroccan fingerprint database proved he was an adult he was forced to live on the streets committing petty crimes to earn money.
“There is no future in Sweden. I know that the Migration Board will say that I do not have the right to be here and that I must leave Sweden,” Ali said and added that he was looking to move to Belgium where he claimed to have connections in order to make a living selling drugs but did not have the funds to pay for a ticket there from Stockholm.
Sweden is not the only country to cooperate with the Moroccan police to identify supposed minor migrants in criminal street gangs. In France, police arrested 1,500 Moroccan migrants but were only able to deport six of them in 2018.
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A new report claims just ten per cent of Moroccan “minor” migrants who have come to Sweden in recent years were actually minors, the rest adults.
Around 1,800 single Moroccan men have applied for asylum in Sweden in the last seven years but following closer cooperation with the government of Morocco the number has fallen to 55 so far this year, Swedish broadcaster SVT reports.
Christian Frödén, group manager at the border police in Stockholm praised the cooperation with the Moroccan police who have allowed their Swedish counterparts access to fingerprint databases saying, “When we find their identity they leave the country and move on to other cities in Europe such as Barcelona or Paris. They do not want the police to know who they are because then they can be punished and be expelled to Morocco.”
The figures show the vast majority of those claiming to be children — that status comes with additional rights and protections — are indeed adults.
One Moroccan migrant who was caught lying about his age was 22-year-old Ali who came to Sweden last year claiming to be 16.
Ali told SVT that other migrants had encouraged him to lie about his age in order to have a better chance at getting benefits from the Swedish government but after the Moroccan fingerprint database proved he was an adult he was forced to live on the streets committing petty crimes to earn money.
“There is no future in Sweden. I know that the Migration Board will say that I do not have the right to be here and that I must leave Sweden,” Ali said and added that he was looking to move to Belgium where he claimed to have connections in order to make a living selling drugs but did not have the funds to pay for a ticket there from Stockholm.
Sweden is not the only country to cooperate with the Moroccan police to identify supposed minor migrants in criminal street gangs. In France, police arrested 1,500 Moroccan migrants but were only able to deport six of them in 2018.
