FARR, the Swedish Network of Asylum and Refugee Support Groups, offers help to asylum seekers coming to Sweden. With anti-immigrant parties slipping into European governments — including the Swedish parliament — many people feel that organizations like this are needed more than ever.
According to Frida Metso, chairwoman of FARR, many Swedes are willing to help refugees. Photo: Press photo
Since 1988, the Swedish volunteer group FARR has been working diligently to assist asylum seekers coming to Sweden. FARR Chairwoman Frida Metso explains that the battle has often just begun for the thousands of people who overcome the hurdles of leaving their homes for a new country, only to be turned away.
“We take very concrete actions,” Metso says. This includes offering help with everything from defending the right to asylum and appealing refugee cases, to comforting asylum seekers and helping them hide when the need arises.
“There are so many stories and so many cases where the laws have not been upheld for asylum seekers,” Metso says. “For instance, there was recently a case of a young homosexual man from Afghanistan whose refugee status was rejected despite the clear laws to the contrary and the known risks of him returning to Afghanistan.”
Today Sweden, like most of Europe, has tightened up on immigration and the authorities are not as generous when it comes to asylum seekers as they were in the past. In the 1970s, 70 percent of asylum seekers were accepted, says Metso.
About 9,000 out of 24,000 people seeking asylum received residency in 2009 according to the Swedish Migration Board, which estimates that the number of asylum seekers for 2010 will reach 32,000.
But although Sweden — a country that has long been recognized as one of the most welcoming in the world — may be handing out fewer residence permits, plenty of individuals are prepared to help out. Metso believes that Swedes are increasingly engaged in the issue and willing to stand up for asylum seekers’ rights. “More and more people in Sweden are willing to make an enormous effort for these people who are scared to death and don’t know where to turn,” she says.
FARR has about 70 refugee lawyers among its more than 750 members. It’s an independent, grassroots organization with no political or religious affiliation.
Cari Simmons
Cari Simmons is a freelance writer from Canada who has spent many years in Sweden. Perhaps it’s the Swedish–Canadian combination, or being a Libra, that’s responsible for her tendency towards balancing the scales of justice.
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