Even Europes humanitarian superpower is

turning its back on refugees

The temporary tent camp organized by MSB, the Swedish Civil Contingencies Agency,
houses about 200 asylum seekers at Revinge outside the city Lund in southern Sweden.
(Drago Prvulovic/AFP/Getty Images)

By Griff Witte and Anthony Faiola-December 30

MALM, Sweden When the small, crumpled body of 3-year-old Alan Kurdi washed
up on the Aegean coast Sept. 2, Europes humanitarian superpower sprang into
action.
Swedens prime minister headlined gala fundraisers, Swedish celebrities starred in
telethons, and a country that prides itself on doing the right thing seemed to rally as
one to embrace refugees fleeing for their lives.
But after taking in more asylum seekers per capita than any other nation in Europe,
Swedens welcome mat now lies in tatters. Overwhelmed by the human tide of 2015,
the center-left government is deploying extraordinary new border controls and slashing
benefits in an unmistakable signal to refugees contemplating the long trek to Sweden
in the new year: Stay out.
Were willing to do more than anyone else, said Swedish Migration Minister Morgan

Johansson. But even we have our limits.

Those limits can be readily seen in a tent camp where dozens of migrants are bedding
down in the frigid Nordic winter, and at the train station where many new arrivals are
turned back within minutes of setting foot on Swedish soil.

You have your ID? a police officer asked passengers one recent evening after their
train had traversed the 7.5-mile Oresund Bridge and crossed from Denmark into
Swedish territory.
Five young Afghan men did not. They were given a choice: immediately claim asylum
or catch the next train back to Denmark. Under new rules set to take effect next week,
they may be prevented from reaching Sweden at all.
[As hostility flares, Hungarys Muslim community mobilizes to aid refugees]
The impact of such controls could be felt far beyond Sweden: The countrys dramatic
shift threatens to wreak havoc all the way down Europes migrant trail in 2016 by
setting off a domino effect in which countries seal their borders for fear that their
neighbors will do the same.
Barriers have already risen across the continent, primarily in the transit nations for
migrants traveling by land into wealthy Western Europe. Hungary lined its borders with
razor-wire, forcing this autumns unparalleled streams of humanity farther west into
Croatia and Slovenia.

In November, Macedonia introduced strict controls meant to filter out new arrivals from
countries other than Syria, Iraq and Afghanistan. The policy has left thousands of
people stranded in Greece.
But Swedens abrupt reversal is potentially far more consequential. Across Europe this
year, two countries have stood out for their uncommonly generous reception policies:
Sweden and Germany.

The Syrian conflict has created the largest wave of refugees to hit Europe since World
War II. VIEW GRAPHIC
In ever-polite, welcoming and humanitarian-minded Sweden, the new policies have
triggered intense soul-searching. Announcing the changes in November, the deputy
prime minister choked back tears. Even those charged with implementing the new
restrictions do so with great ambivalence.
I have everything. Theyve left everything, said Anna Loenn, a police officer who led
the checks at the first station on the Swedish side of the Oresund Bridge one recent
evening. Its heartbreaking whats happening.
Yet authorities say the changes were necessary, both for security reasons and to stem
a flow of arrivals that was simply unsustainable.
[In wake of Paris attacks, refugees fear backlash]
Investigators now say that at least three of the attackers in the deadly Nov. 13 assault
on Paristraveled from Syria via Greece, exploiting some of the same routes into

Europe being traveled by desperate asylum seekers.

Despite repeated pledges from E.U. officials about the need to gain control of the
continents external borders, there has been little concrete action forcing member
states to revive internal border controls that disappeared decades ago.
Johansson, the migration minister, said the E.U.s failure to take collective action also
explained why his country was inundated by flows that, at their peak, brought more
than 10,000 people a week to a country of fewer than 10 million. Much larger E.U.
countries took only a fraction of that weekly total during all of 2015.
We can handle the 160,000 people who came this year. But we cant handle it if there
are another 160,000 people next year, Johansson said, urging asylum seekers to look
to any of the other 27 E.U. nations before they consider Sweden. Our whole asylum
system would break down.
The system very nearly did break down in the fall. With arrivals outpacing the
governments ability to find shelter, asylum seekers were forced to sleep on the streets
in November a first in the countrys modern history.
We always take great pride in accommodating people in a dignified way, said Mikael
Ribbenvik, director of operations for the Migration Board, the government body in
charge of caring for asylum seekers. But we had to report on several occasions that we
just couldnt handle the situation.
No one is on the streets now, with arrivals having dropped substantially in December.
But Ribbenvik said 23,000 people are still in housing classified as substandard,
including dozens of young men who are sleeping in tents pitched in a muddy field in
the southern Swedish countryside.
Its not what Mohammed, a cherub-faced 35-year-old, had in mind when he left his
native Damascus. He had heard from friends that new arrivals in Sweden were given
tidy apartments and a warm welcome. He was shown to one of a dozen cots in a
cavernous tent and told it would be his home for the winter.
Its going to be horrible, said Mohammed, who asked that his last name not be
printed because he has family in Syria and fears for their safety. The tents are heated,
but especially when the weather turns bad, itll be very hard to live here.
The worst part, he said, will be living without easy access to books, especially his
favorites: Shakespeare, the Victorians, the Transcendentalists and George Orwell.

But he doesnt blame Sweden, which he said is doing its best under the circumstances.
Nor does he regret leaving behind the war that has engulfed his native land.
I have no choice. Its either here or the hell of there, he said. I couldnt stay in
Syria.

Faiola reported from Berlin. Karla Adam in London and Stephanie Kirchner in Berlin
contributed to this report.
Read more
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3 important facts about how the U.S. resettles Syrian refugees
Britain takes in so few refugees from Syria they would fit on a subway train
Read The Posts coverage on the global surge in migration

Griff Witte is The Posts London bureau chief. He previously served as the papers
deputy foreign editor and as the bureau chief in Kabul, Islamabad and Jerusalem.

Anthony Faiola is The Post's Berlin bureau chief. Faiola joined the Post in 1994, since
then reporting for the paper from six continents and serving as bureau chief in Tokyo,
Buenos Aires, New York and London.

Posted by Thavam