Posts Falsely Claim That Swedish Authorities Kidnap the Children of Muslim Immigrants
The Claim
Swedish authorities kidnap Muslim children from their parents to place them with a substitute family.
News posted on
Emerging story
Social media users have circulated posts claiming the Swedish authorities kidnap Muslim children from their parents to place them with a substitute family.
Misbar’s Analysis
Misbar has investigated the claim and found it to be misleading. Swedish authorities were not kidnapping kids.
According to Swedish reports, Swedish Social Services withdrew custody of several children and separated them from their parents who are not qualified to raise them.
The Swedish Center for Information has mentioned that taking away children from their parents is not applied to immigrant families only, but all families in Sweden if their income sources are limited or if the children are suffering from abuse.
The Swedish Social Services Authority (Social) takes 20,000 children from their families every year and places them in other families or foster homes. Social aims to take the child into custody if it is suspected that the kid is at risk of physical or psychological abuse.
The Swedish Act of the Care of Young People has mentioned that care is to be provided for children if they suffer from any condition that can cause danger to their health or development like abuse or criminal activity.
The child suffering from such conditions may be taken from his parents and placed in the custody of social workers who can find him a foster family whose address remains hidden from the parents.
A serious discussion about taking away children from their families in Sweden sparked in 2019 after the Swedish authorities removed the children of many Syrian refugee couples.
An ongoing online campaign highlights cases of many Syrian couples whose children were removed by Swedish Social Services using the hashtag #Stopkidnappingourchildren. Meanwhile, many misleading and fake stories are circulating, like a video that claims it is related to removing children in Sweden recently. Misbar has already debunked the video in another context. Our team has discovered that the video is outdated; it was taken in Feb. 2015 when a Swedish security guard assaulted a 9-year-old Moroccan child. Misbar Arabic has debunked another video and found out that it is not related to children being taken away from their families in Sweden.
