CAIRO: In Europe, Iraqi applications for asylum have doubled over the past three years. But European countries have not offered much refuge, with one big exception: Sweden. In 2006 almost 9,000 Iraqis applied for asylum in the rich Scandinavian country. It was triple what they were expecting, and more than 40 percent of all Iraqi refugee claims in Europe. Accounts of the experiences of Iraqi refugees have been circulating the Swedish press. The story of 50-year-old Laura, who arrived in Sweden three months ago describes how she paid a smuggler close to $30,000 to get her and her two daughters into Stockholm. Like many others in her position, Laura was afraid to use her real name because her husband and two other children are still trying to leave Iraq. The turning point for her was when her son was kidnapped. He was released three days later after they paid a $25,000 ransom and that was when Laura decided to flee Baghdad. As a Christian she blames Muslims for the chaos in her home country, but Iraqi Muslims too are seeking refuge in Sweden. Like many recent arrivals, Ahlam Abbas and her 88-year-old mother went to Sweden because other close family members already lived there because tens of thousands of Iraqis had fled during Saddam Hussein s rule. The way Sweden handles Iraqi asylum is different from any other European country. I would say about 90 percent of Iraqis are here at this time, says Fredrik Beijer, director of Sweden s asylum processing. He says that even Iraqis with weak individual persecution claims now often get residence permits with full rights to work and welfare. I don t think Sweden will send them back. They figure they ll be in the country for a while and would rather try to integrate them. Besides, we re a rich European country that can afford to host such a displaced minority. It s the least we can do, said Jonas Persson, a Swedish resident in Cairo. But with such a disproportionately high number of claims, Sweden is pushing other European countries to do more. In a recent press release delivered by Sweden s Ministry of Migration Forces, Tobias Billström, Sweden s migration minister urged European countries to receive and accept more refugees. This will be a big change for places like Germany, which accepted about 10 percent of Iraqi asylum claims last year, Persson said. It has also started taking back asylum that it granted to Iraqi refugees in the 1990s. About 18,000 Iraqis, one-third of Iraqis in Germany, have lost that protection since Germany began revocations three years ago. Immigration lawyer Reinhard Marx has seen plenty of clients bring in notices from the government explaining the reasons. The philosophy behind this is very simple, Marx says. Mr Saddam Hussein has been defeated so there is no persecutor anymore. Britain has sent back most 85. The most recent group was deported last month. The British government says all have come from and were returned to the northern, Kurdish-controlled area of Iraq, which Britain feels is sufficiently stable. Refugee advocate Bjarte Vandvik of the European Council on Refugees and Exiles said in a press conference in Berlin that even symbolic returns send the wrong message. It s a double standard where it's okay to help them down there even to the extent of sending soldiers. But when they come here and say, We re still scared, we re afraid for our lives and our children, then sorry, we don t, we can t help you, Vandvik reportedly said. Sweden s migration minister Tobias Billström is trying to convince other European countries that even if they don t take in more people, they must send money to Syria and Jordan to help with the hundreds of thousands of Iraqis there. If they were to be destabilized - it would prove to be very, very bad indeed, not just for the region - but also for Europe. Because then this enormous amount of people would move westward, Billstrom said. The United States has agreed to accept 7,000 Iraqi refugees this year, after admitting fewer than 500 over the past three years. The United States is the biggest contributor so far to a UN fund set up to help Iraqi refugees in the Middle East. The biggest European contributor to that fund is Sweden.
