Swede here, alot of our empathic and socialist values have gone downhill for many years but especially the last few years have seen a big rise to the right wing extremist party. I think most people here will find this cruel. “This is not the people we wanted to throw out! It was only The muslims, arabs, jews, colored people, unemployed…” etc etc etc.
Some of the new laws that has been passed with the right wing partiets have been incredibly stupid and enabled shit like this. My favorite is that its now illegal to insult law enforcement. There’s this old rhyme we taught kids “polis polis potatisgris” (“police police potato-pig”) which with current jurisdiction would be illegal.
So yeah, Sweden is doing great and is absolutely not turning in to yet another unempathic capitalistic americanized shithole. People keep buying the lies and turn against the less fortunate of society instead of actually seeing the problem.
posts about the problems of xenophobia
still blames a foreign country
These are countries that want to put people from war torn and poor countries in containers and ship them back. There’s such a disgusting lack of empathy in the world at the moment, no wonder fascism is back.
“Illegal overstayer who requires 24/7 care costing thousands of £ each week at taxpayer expense to be deported”.
Equivalent Daily Mail headline if this was about the same thing happening here.
That aside, things like this are the harsh reality of brexit. Why would we expect Sweden to keep looking after him if we wouldn’t do the same?
Why would we expect Sweden to keep looking after him if we wouldn’t do the same?
For the same reason that, if person A punched person B’s child, we would expect person B not to punch person A’s child (though punching person A themself is fair game). Keeping or deporting this man and others like him doesn’t affect Britain in any significant way; its only “justification” here is spite* and that’s just not enough to uproot people from their home of 25 years. The idea that deporting people like this is somehow “returning the favor” to Britain ignores the human reality of what’s going on here. And it’s not like Sweden is just doing the obvious here; their rejection (and hence deportation) rate is 7 to 9 times the EU average.
*That’s the English-speaking internet’s justification; I’m sure the Swedish government with its far-right sympathies doesn’t need any justification other than xenophobia.
uproot people from their home of 25 years
especially when they have dementia
Yeah - that’s the thing: de facto this guy can’t defend himself or even be expected to keep up with paperwork.
The metaphor about punching children is very close to reality in this specific situation.
Article doesn’t really mention since when he had been in full time care
An application for a residence permit was made in December 2021 but was rejected last November by the Swedish migration agency on the grounds “he had not submitted documents demonstrating that he met the requirements for the right of residence” and would have to leave the country.
So it took Migrationsverket 4 years to figure that out? They are a shoddy bunch so I would not put it far from them to never explain what exactly they need.
Depending on since when this guy has been in full time care, he probably did fullfill all requirements as before last year it mostly was about living in Sweden for 5+ years and earning a decent enough salary to support yourself.
Bit of a weird case but knowing how terrible Migrationsverket just is I would not throw this out as a case of the dude just “applying too late”.
Horrible, but this is Brexit and voting has consequences. Now go enjoy your £15 chippy tea and a nice swim at the sewage beach.
No, this is Swedish immigration policy. It’s not Britain’s fault that Sweden chooses to be cruel to a person with dementia who has lived in the country for 25 years. It’s beyond time EU countries excuse their own bad behaviour with “bEcAuSe bReXit”.
The UK is welcome to rejoin
You’re directing this to a guy with dementia. That’s very silly.
I’m not, he is clearly a victim of the brexit consequences, as many others are too. This shit could have been avoided and can still be reversed, it’s up to the UK voters. Yet plenty still throw their support behind the cunt farage…
I misinterpreted this phrase then, thinking you were addressing it to him:
Now go enjoy your £15 chippy tea and a nice swim at the sewage beach.
Fair enough, it could have been written clearer. I wish the poor guy all the best, and the many others suffering from these stupid divisive politics who don’t make ot into the news
Does Sweden have some entity to overrule that? The guy isn’t even there mentally. It sounds needlessly cruel and shameful.
Does Sweden have some entity to overrule that?
I mean the courts, but it seems they’ve exhausted all domestic legal channels and are now forced to rely on the EU.
Carl is trying to mount a further challenge with the European court of human rights in Strasbourg and has launched a GoFundMe page Stötta George to cover his estimated costs of 50,000 kronor (£3,900).
Yeah, that is Scandinavian socialism working as it was intended to do.
Man, this has got to be absolutely awful for this family
Is it just that Europe is more active at this time than America or has the Fediverse been always been this xenophobic? I can’t believe I’m saying this, but Americans please help. That said, seeing the comment section as it is right now does wonders to explain the rise of the far-right.
I can’t believe I’m saying this, but Americans please help.
Lol, yeah in America you’d get a complimentary bullet and assault alongside tens of thousands of dollars in associated medical costs with your deportation. They’re so good about it you don’t even need to be a non-citizen/resident for ICE to deport you or murder you in broad daylight.
Hundreds of thousands in medical costs
I mean America is a far-right hellhole at the moment, but Americans clearly don’t like that, and don’t like it with quite a bit more principle than Europeans don’t like their far-right clowns if the Fediverse is any indication (quite a big if to be fair, but one that seems to correspond to the facts). In any case, Fediverse Americans tend to be less willing to accept thinly veiled rightwing rhetoric than Fediverse Europeans.
National borders are made up, mostly for convenience (for example, the administration of social systems). Brexit is a rejection of that philosophy in favor of nationalism. As a result, this British guy needs to leave. It’s not complicated.
Borders contain a social system. Like one country decides to fund healthcare (more) and the other doesn’t. Would be unfair and unsustainable if people who fall sick are now suddendly migrating to a healthcare system they didnt fund. That’s why EU open borders require future member states to implement the similar ruleset first.
This would be the convenience I mentioned.
It’s not complicated.
It’s not complicated; it’s just ghoulish and inhumane. Why should the British voting public’s opinions affect the life of this person who hasn’t lived in Britain for decades? This isn’t even that novel of an idea; clearly essentially all EU countries other than Sweden understand this, hence Sweden being the only EU country with a two-digit percentage Brexit deportation rate. I mean hell, if Bulgaria can only deport 5 people out of 16 thousand then it’s clearly not “not complicated.”
Why should the British voting public’s opinions affect the life of this person who hasn’t lived in Britain for decades?
- It shouldn’t in a perfect world. Unfortunately, national borders exist (because of things like Brexit). So keeping him in Sweden requires an individual exception.
- There’s no reason to grant someone who in 20 years never applied for Swedish citizenship an exception.
So keeping him in Sweden requires an individual exception.
I won’t address the value problem of “then why not give that exception.” Instead I’ll say: No it doesn’t; the Brexit withdrawal agreement has provisions specifically for British people living in the EU at the time of implementation. This is factually wrong, as seen by the behavior of literally every other EU member state.
There’s no reason to grant someone who in 20 years never applied for Swedish citizenship an exception.
Setting aside the value problem of “the right to live in one’s home isn’t something to be granted,” see above. Again this isn’t an exception; it’s the rule as set in the withdrawal agreement. Also this is your third time moving the goalposts and I’d really rather you commit to one line of argument or admit that you’re defending the indefensible.
None of this matters. He isn’t Swedish. If they want him out, and he’s not a refugee, he’s out. That’s their sovereign right.
First you’re talking about rules and exceptions, now you’re arguing the Swedish government can do whatever it wants and rules don’t matter. I hope you can see the contraction here.
Um, the Swedish people are following the law, which says that Sweden can remove foreigners who aren’t refugees. If you think there was an illegality here (a contradiction) please explain.
If he wants to be Swedish, he should have applied for citizenship anytime over the last 20 years.
First, that has nothing to do with anything I said. Second, I somehow doubt applying for citizenship would’ve gone better than applying for residency.
Then he doesn’t belong there. Sweden has a right to its autonomy independent of whatever British people want.
I see you moving the goalposts there, but fine. In that case: Sweden’s “right” to autonomy (countries don’t have rights; people do, in this case the right to self-determination) doesn’t override the rights of people living in Sweden. Your argument can be used to justify literally anything any government does, but I rather doubt you’d justify the Russian invasion of Ukraine via Russia’s “right” (see above) to autonomy.
I never moved the goalposts, you’re just having trouble understanding me. Rules apply to everyone equally. You’re requesting an exception. As the judge said, I just don’t see why such an exception should be granted. The guy is British. He belongs in Britain. If he wanted to be Swedish, he can apply for Swedish citizenship. Yes, maybe he’d get rejected. Alas, those are the rules.
I personally don’t respect nationality, and I don’t care about citizenship. Everyone else does.
Sweden’s “right” to autonomy doesn’t override the rights of people living *in* Sweden
Um, it should go without saying that the right of Swedish people to determine which foreigners reside within their borders is not overridden by the convenience of those foreigners.
Okay I’m not sure if you’re aware of this (if not you should do some introspection), but your argument is nothing more than window-dressing for your authoritarian values and disregard for human rights. In particular, your assumption that rules have some kind of sanctity that trumps personal liberty is frankly the kind of authoritarian bullshit that props up authoritarian regimes. How you assume rules that just so happen to justify the actions of authority figures is very telling; for context the actual rules here are the Brexit withdrawal agreement, under which British residents of the EU at the time of signing are to get residency in their host countries if they apply for it. I hope you become a better person; this conversation is over.
