For years Sweden has regarded itself as a “humanitarian superpower” – making its mark by offering refugee to those fleeing war and persecution.
But people’s patience with their visitors is wearing thin following a year of violence, sickening sex assaults and the death of social worker Alexandra Mezher, 22, who was knifed to death at an asylum centre for unaccompanied children at the hands of a Somalian migrant who claimed he was 15.
At the time, her grieving mother, an immigrant herself from the Middle East said: “Immigration has destroyed Sweden.”
Sweden, a country of 9.8million, took 163,000 asylum seekers in 2015.
The influx included 35,400 unaccompanied minors – nine times more than 2015.
But nothing could prepare Stockholm for the rise in crime and an abuse of the criminal system.
And so much so, a nation, which once prided itself on giving a warm welcome to outsiders, has reported a rise in arson attacks against migrant shelters, while support for the right-wing Swedish Democrats has surged.
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