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BEER CANS, NEWSPAPERS drenched in vomit and aluminium foil litters the ground inside a parking garage where young Afghan asylum seekers smoke heroin as they shelter from the cold in central Sweden.
“When we smoke… we’re calm and don’t worry about anything,” says Mahdi, a 16-year-old Afghan refugee, who started using heroin after he arrived and quickly got hooked.
Uppsala, a university town an hour’s drive north of Stockholm, has taken in nearly 1,000 unaccompanied asylum seekers under the age of 18.
Around 100 of them, most of them Afghan, have been caught using heroin as they wait for their applications to be processed, which can take more than a year on average.
Swedish authorities acknowledge that drug abuse is prevalent among young asylum seekers.
In the capital Stockholm, at least 1,000 young asylum seekers received treatment for drug abuse in 2016. Most of them were minors and boys, health authorities said, without specifying their country of origin.
Anders Nilsson is a 38-year-old anti-narcotics police chief who’s trying to do something about it.
Wearing faded jeans and a baseball cap, Nilsson leads a team of undercover cops scouting for young heroin addicts in the streets of Uppsala.
Strolling on a busy shopping street, he approaches groups of boys to see if anyone could be under the influence of heroin, eyeing their pupils and checking their pockets.
Authorities want to take action to ensure the young men don’t become a threat to themselves or to society.
“It’s tough to find yourself in an asylum application process and having to wait for a decision,” Hilde Wiberg, head of social services in Uppsala, says, adding many asylum seekers feel mentally unstable because of past traumas.
To ease the fear
Mahdi is one of the lucky ones: he overcame his heroin addiction and received permanent residency in Sweden.
Covering his head with a blue hoodie, he said he and his friends smoked the highly-addictive drug, related to opium which Afghanistan produces and distributes around the world, to ease their fear of being deported.
“(If) they don’t have permanent residency… they’re forced to go back to Afghanistan,” Mahdi tells AFP.
And going home means they’re at risk of being killed by either the Taliban or the Islamic State group.
Afghans constitute the highest number of unaccompanied minors seeking asylum in Sweden. Nearly 80% of them have their applications approved.
Of the 1,321 requests processed so far this year, 200 have been rejected, according to the Swedish Migration Agency.
But in a revised security assessment published in December, the agency deemed some regions in Afghanistan such as Panjshir, Bamiyan and Daikundi “less dangerous” despite “increasing violence” in the war-torn country, making it easier to deport rejected asylum seekers to those areas.
Daniel Larsson, an Uppsala police superintendent, said a case of occasional possession or use of heroin would not negatively affect an individual’s asylum request.
However, criminal acts would.
‘Sentenced to care’
In order to fund their expensive habit, these young men often turn to a life of crime.
Police say they enter luxury clothing boutiques in central Uppsala and snatch whatever they see. Passersby have also been robbed, according to local media reports.
They then take the train or bus to northern Stockholm to buy the drugs, returning to Uppsala after making their purchase.
If the asylum seekers are caught using heroin by the undercover cops, they’re taken to the police station for a urine test and kept under the supervision of social services.
But they won’t face jail time.
Anders Nilsson says there’s no other alternative for heroin abusers than to receive care.
“Instead of sentencing them to prison… we have the possibility to sentence them to (health) care,” Nilsson says.
Asylum seekers whose addiction has gone too far are committed to care homes across Sweden. But Nilsson fears those homes are already overcrowded.
“It’s very difficult to find space… you need a specific type of care.”
‘Very happy here’
For Salim, a 17-year-old Kurdish unaccompanied asylum seeker, Sweden is a safe destination, where he can receive free education and health care.
Although he’s still waiting for his asylum application to be granted and misses his family, Salim says he’s “very happy to be” in Sweden, which in 2015 took in the largest number of refugees per capita in Europe.
“I don’t have any problems here… I go to school here,” he tells AFP, while killing time with his friends in central Uppsala.
He says unaccompanied minors wouldn’t take drugs if they didn’t have problems.
“There’s not a single person here without problems,” Salim says, looking down shyly at his shoes.
Asked what he’d like to do in the future if he stays, he chuckles.
“I want to be a police officer.”
you mean it conflicts with the Journals highly sophisticated poll earlier today ???????????
But in fair Ness if everybody voted like they do in other countries the world would be a much better place. Peace. And good Juju
Enda said in the Dail the average water blll will be €245 per year.
This is going to come back and bit him on the backside.
Water bill and property tax in January
will go done like a lead balloon.
One thing no Irish person believes themself to be is just average.
Suspect fewer and fewer people believe anything Enda says anymore.
Did the poll hurt your feelings?
No did it hurt yours David?
No it will bite US in the back side. Indah can afford it, I cannot.
It’s the economy, stupid.
More like ‘its the spin , stupid’.
Outside the cherrypicked figures and back slapping photo ops, the actual story is that our GNP (the important figure) is up a mere 0.5%, and due to our reliance on exports any number of factors outside our control could drop us back in deep doo doo. We are literally operating our economy by the seat of its pants, thanks to the governments refusal to stimulate the domestic economy, which would help cushion us from external shocks.
We are in better position that some of the big economies of Europe going by GDP. Quit the nay-saying
Ahh the SF mouthpiece
Where’s Brendan ferron and the other one.
No they haven’t been on since they got elected to local government
So who are you??
Wer Jammin
Don’t comment on anything else except when it’s to do with enda or anything to do with NI
And I’m no a blue shirt by the way
.
Brendan got elected. You won’t see him around anymore. Though, for the record, he disappeared from these boards one hour after Gerry Adam’s got arrested. I was in mid conversation with him, when he was told to shut up by his superiors, and to go to ground – and stay there – elected or not.
Imagine having a public representative that is banned from speaking when his boss calls.
That’s SF folks.
@ marky: GDP is meaningless as it includes monies which are repatriated by the multinationals. GNPO is the reliable figure on domestic growth.
@ Brendan: Most of my posts for months have related to the slaughter in Gaza.
Pity wer spamming wasn’t told to shut up!
We’re Jammin
Your Sinn Fein brand of economic illusion and delusion is only exceeded by your total lack of understanding on the subject.
Give over folks, give were jammin a few minutes to text Brendan . Then Brendan will appear out of the ether – the very same ether that he used as a platform for his own election.
This should be fun. I’d doubt were jammin is that stupid, but i’ll throw the dogs a bone anyway…..
Are you having to join the queues every Monday morning to go to work I’m London etc? He’s done nothing to encourage new business development unless you’re a multinational….FG and their bullsh!t coalition partners are living in a cost world of managed statistics and theatre with the electorate being treated as village idiot
Were jamming, the poor guy, is a SF troll with multiple accounts. As transparent as the lies of SF.
You can’t be that much of a specialist if you have to go block laying in England…you should have tried better in school…
Are people’s lives better though ? I do not think saying our GDP is this or our GNP is that will cut it
u doth protest your lack of blueshirticity a little too much a chara
Niall you have a vivid imagination there…
The Journal is not the be all and end all you know, perhaps it is for some but not for majority of people…. ” I was in mid conversation with him, when he was told to shut up by his superiors, and to go to ground – and stay there – elected or not. ” Can you prove that ? The other night you said you were in SF HQ and complained me lol….CLLR Ferron is a public representative and is accessible to the public he is not obliged to be on here day and night talking to you.
Finally are you still pretending you are not a political activist
and you are a Labour Moan Bruton troll are you not ?
snob
We’re a fickle bunch alright.
The economy would probably have recovered anyhow given outside influences, NTMA management of debt, electorate acceptance of austerity etc. What matters is that FG and Labour completely renaged on their election promises ( free GP care, abolition of property tax, write down of Bank debt etc ). In future they should be made declare in their manifestos which promises are non negotiable.
I don’t think either Fine Gael or Labour promised to abolish property tax Maurice. For starters there was only the second home tax when they came in to government! The household charge was introduced after they came in to government so how could they promise to abolish something that didn’t exist?
Fine Gaels 2011 manifesto stated that a recurring charge on the family home would be unfair.
They won a lot of votes on the back of this, but introduced the tax anyway.
If I remember correctly WJ their manifesto section on funding local government was very wooly and fuzzy! The said that a tax on the family home would be unfair but didn’t propose any credible alternatives if I remember correctly.
Show me a few tax that someone could call unfair? And in austere times hard decisions need to be made.
We still pay Dublin TDs 750 a month to show up … even during the summer. Wr gave AIB a billion to prop up their pension. Hard decisions?
‘Reg, the following is the section from the FG Manifesto regarding Property Tax.
“Funding Local Government: Fianna Fail’s proposal, now endorsed by the Labour Party, to introduce by 2014 an annual, recurring residential property tax on the family home is unfair. But as we tackle the fiscal crisis, we will have to cut central exchequer funding for local authorities, and we recognize that local authorities will have to find more sustainable sources of revenue appropriate to local circumstances. What will be viewed as fair in South Dublin might be viewed as unworkable in rural Clare.
In this context, we will empower local authorities to put in place, following the 2014 local elections, fairer alternatives to Fianna Fail’s and Labour’s recurring annual tax on the family home. The options would include:
• No extra local taxes, forcing local authorities to close non-priority services and / or to deliver increased efficiencies;
• Increased local user charges for waste etc.; or
• The option of a local “site sale profits tax”. Such a tax would be levied on the profit made from the site value on the sale of a residence (sales proceeds, less cost indexed by inflation, less stamp duty paid and less home improvements)
The final measure might be considered as both fairer and more economically sensible than an annual recurring property tax. Whichever option local electorates choose, for the first time since the 1970s local government will have real independence from central government in deciding what services to provide at local level and how to fund them.”
Thanks Jack. As I said wooly and fuzzy!
pedantic Reg at it again… what about the promise not to introduce certain things ?
Who was asked? The rich friends of this bunch of hypocrites! I can’t see any improvement in the economy. There are shops closed all over the place. Phibsborough is turning into the village of the walking dead. There are potholes everywhere. Grrrrrr
This pole must have been conducted on the stoop outside FG HQ.
So if you don’t like the answer then the question is wrong??
What was the Pole conducting, a bus or an orchestra? And why is the nationality relevant?
Bohs out … Rovers In
Ha ha Byrne, you loser…get yourself a job and contribute you scr
Ounger
But people FG are at 28% only its an improvement but then its a long way short of the 36% they polled in the last General Election
5 to €10 extra a month and that straight from a ministers mouth. Seeing that water charges are coming and vat and inflation are rising i would say that either people are not been asked in the right areas or people are not been asked in the right areas. Remember 1vote for each person no amount of media gov doin can take that.. The ballot box will sort the spoof out.
I
I
Captain…
Can’t think of anything to say that has not been said already, so here is a pancake recipe:
Ingredients
Pancake Mixture:
100g plain flour
Pinch of salt
1 egg
300 ml milk
1 tablsp. melted butter or sunflower oil
To Cook
Sift the flour and salt into a mixing bowl and make a well in the centre. Crack the egg into the well; add the melted butter or oil and half the milk. Gradually draw the flour into the liquid by stirring all the time with a wooden spoon until all the flour has been incorporated and then beat well to make a smooth batter. Stir in the remaining milk. Alternatively, beat all the ingredients together for 1 minute in a blender or food processor. Leave to stand for about 30 minutes, stir again before using.
To make the pancakes, heat a small heavy-based frying until very hot and then turn the heat down to medium. Lightly grease with oil and then ladle in enough batter to coat the base of the pan thinly (about 2 tablsp.), tilting the pan so the mixture spreads evenly. Cook over a moderate heat for 1-2 minutes or until the batter looks dry on the top and begins to brown at the edges. Flip the pancake over with a palette knife or fish slice and cook the second side.
Serving Suggestions
Butter
Caster sugar
Lemon juice
Turn onto a plate, smear with a little butter, sprinkle of sugar and a squeeze of lemon juice – enjoy!
Lol :)
The only poll that matters is the polling booth, and in between now and the next general election there will be water bills, more homeowner tax bills, further suffering, and confirmation that the big spoof about us getting retrospective recapitalisation of the banking debt was just that, a big spoof.
Interesting times ahead….
You didn’t and don’t say that when Sinn Fein do well. They either matter or they don’t. You can’t have it both ways.
I think they have an impact but a government can poll 0% and there is nothing illegitimate about that. You have a majority you have a majority.
Sinn Fein are doing well in this poll David at 23% whereas your Labour party are at 8% and FF are at 18%
I suppose it all depends on the question asked.
“Do you think the country’s economic situation is getting better?” – yes
“Do you think that savage cuts to health, welfare, the elderly, the young, the middle, in fact; everyone might possibly maybe be coming to an end and the desperate situation that we’ve all been in could change?” -yes
That’s it in a nutshell.
I do however, take some glee in the fact that Joan Bruton’s appointment to Lab boss, hasn’t made any real impact on Lab’s fortunes. I like that bit a lot.
Burton.
Bounce
Worth pointing out we have pretty much the most progressive tax system in OECD.
US levels of income inequality before tax, slap bang in the European average for inequality after tax. Free market economy with a highly progressive tax system.
When you take all the shouting and posturing out I think that’s a pretty good system really.
P.s. The elderly have done very well out of the recession but you won’t here it. Child poverty rate is 5 times that of the elderly. The wealthiest demographic in the country.
Totally agree, David. The elderly have done better than anyone else, and in many respects have got away relatively unscathed. Well said.
They vote and they are vocal!
Are the people. Mad they have short memory’s
It’s best to forget about the troubles and the roles people played and move on.
bit obsessive thereJohn… I would think Maureen is speaking of the way FFFG have impoverished huge numbers of people and forced many more to leave
A fair reflection finally of the work both parties have put in to turn this country’s economy around…
You mean faithfully following FF and the troika agreed plan O’Reilly? Maybe we should get FF back into government seeing as they where the ones who drew up the plan….
Sure they’ll be in again next time.
Kerry, what does it matter? The end result is what counts. And the fact is the economy is in recovery. Unemployment is going down. Why can’t you at least acknowledge that?
sure the country is booming, its just the damn people with no money and no work that’s spoiling it.
@ o’lielly: ” And the fact is the economy is in recovery. ”
GNP has increased around 0.5%. Stop regurgitating the spin fro party HQ. We are SLOWLY moving in the right direction and this could be easily reversed due to our dependence on exports.
@ Were Lying: GNP is up 5.4% over the past 12 months.
You can do your best to hope for an ecomomic reversal, but Sinn Fein really need to come out of the darkness and have a positive message. Constant negativity will tire your supporters if they all start getting jobs.
Problem is 1 in 6 mortgages is in arrears so this economic recover is not lifting all boats. Certain sections may be experiencing a recover but very few workers or unemployed are.
There are lies, damned lies and then there are percentages
We are a country not just an economy…and yes unemployment has gone down due to emigration and a growth in employment… any growth in employment is good but and its a big but…the growth in employment is in partime positions…also are “scambridge ” employees included as employed ?
It’s not me being polled anyway
It’s a 4000/1 shot you could be. I’d stay up all night staring at the phone with fingers crossed if I were you.
Excellent result for the government parties. I believe the right thinking people of Ireland will reject a return to FF and keep SF on the sidelines looking in.
can you tell us what difference there is between f.f and f.g
The main difference is FG is in power
… A rose by any other name…
you mean the only difference….and you are been serious too well said…its been in Government for the sake of it that matters isnt it ?
Whoever is taking part in these polls must be apathetic to their own betterment or idiots or rich..absolute joke..no wonder young people are leaving in their droves!!
Not any more…
not anymore O Reilly… if that is so its because they are all gone already
Is it just me or is Enda morphing into ‘laughing boy’? I fail to see the joke.
it’s just you
Just you kid
Cute whöre Enda will be happy with that
I don’t know who was polled, all Fine Gael members?
60% of the country think austerity is the right course of action?
Who in their right mind would believe that garbage?
Probably people who look to the future and see optimism rather than the windbags who complain on the internet and offer no solutions.
Burn holders this boycott water charges that.
wasnt that what ye said before the last election ????
I think it is great that the Sinn Fein supporters are preaching that it is the general election that really counts because I agree however this might not be a positive for SF.
I think life is going to get tougher for them as we get closer to an election. USA looks set to increase interest rate for the first time in eight years will improve euro exports, unemployment is down and due to the deal being done with IMF there will be some slush/stimulus money to be spent before the next election. By the time the election comes about I think it is fair to say that the Irish public will be more positive about their future and prefer keeping with the path than bringing in a radical party(as a whole)
Also once the debates get going it is going to be tough on the ould Sinners. Firstly FG/FF and labor will all point out that Ireland is becoming prosperous again thanks to austerity measures that were needed and that if we had went down the burn the bond holders model of burning bond holders and increasing corp tax our country would be a basket case.
Also I think every other party is going to view Sinn Fein like ISIS (This is an analogy) FG will not want to share power with them while lB and FF are fighting for their existence in Irish politics so any loyal party supporters will not give them second or third preference votes.
uve been away bit long….i think
SF will probably be disappointed with that. But as long as people believe the economy is moving forward, SF will stay stagnant or maybe even lose a little, but not much, ground.
Though not a fan of SF, nor any other party, I’d prefer if they didn’t go into reverse, but stayed where they are or marginally increased voter share. I like how they’ve been making the other parties sweat. It’s healthy.
Lab going up too, is probably based on the economy, but lets’ face it – they’re still doing pathetically bad,
Independents dropping is probably also to do with the economy, but I’m more disappointed with their losing ground, than anyone else.
FF staying @ 18% is a good sign imo. People don’t rate them one way or the other. FF are going nowhere as long as mehole Martin is at the helm.
We must never become complacent. Provisional Sinn Fein is a threat to democracy in this state and must be kept at arm’s length. The fact that they remain at such a high level is disconcerting and reflects a massive dysfunctional mind-set within certain sections of the population. FF should be a non-entity but this dysfunctional minds-set crosses many boundaries.
You are such a snob
Niall Sinn Fein are at 23% and you put that as been disappointing and then you say FF are at !18% and that is a good sign……its odd the way someone who claims to be neutral posts against every party except FF
Labours policy now coming to its own. Saved the country and now getting it fit and healthy for the years ahead.
Don’t think so.
Their is no room for 3 right parties in Ireland FF & FG is enough.
Lol, Seamus. That must be the most politically naive post I’ve seen in a long time.
You’ve had your change of leader, and you still can’t get your heads above the parapet. Lab are screwed. You had the chance to bring in some fresh blood, and like the grovelling cowards you are in Lab, you opted for the Joan Burton. As soon as she became leader, Lab’s destiny, or lack thereof, was cemented. It’s over.
The ONLY option Lab has for survival, is to threaten to pull out of government unless an abortion referendum is held. Of course, they won’t do that because they have pensions to protect.
I don’t always agree with were jammin, but he has Lab pretty much nailed down in his views of them imo.
As an addendum, they’ll have to wait 3-4 months before the next GE, before playing the abortion card.
8% for a junior coalition partner is very impressive really.
From 32% in 2011, David?
These are extraordinary times, but I can’t think offhand of such a dramatic collapse in support for any party – junior, or otherwise.
agh David really clutching at straws there… have you forgotten the local and European Elections never mind the Two By-Elections
There is been deluded and been totally deluded
Never trust Red C Poll.
Will people ever learn hopefully when water charges start people might get up and rebel against these gangsters were only fools in there eyes a laughing stock Fine Gael me arse!
People will revolt because of a 65 odd euro per quarter water bill? On top of all the money that’s been taken out of the economy and additional taxes levied, I fail to see how this will be the straw that breaks the camels back.
Has it occurred to you that plenty of people support the rebuilding of the tax base? I won’t like having an extra bill, but I see the need for it. I’m not a FG voter but I can see how someone of my mind, who is a FG voter, would continue to support them.
These opinion polls are scientifically designed and conducted by reputable commercial organisations. They are accurate. Otherwise the polling organisations would go out of business.
Unscientific polls such as the random poll on this site regarding voting intentions are completely a waste of time. They only prove that Fine Gael supporters tend to respond earlier in the day than Sinn Feiners but Sinn Feiners respond in greater numbers than Fine Gael supporters even though there are more Fine Gael supporters than Sinn Feiners.
David the priest told me god exists without the proof. So if you are correct the people in the poll must be low tax payers on higher income than most of us. It must be an invisible imaginary back on track economy I do not see it.
It is a fact that a sizeable proportion of /FG voters come from more rural, older and less ‘journal.ie’ literate than your average left-wing voter, so of course the journals poll would be biased.
I could conduct a perfectly sound scientific experiment, get perfectly sound results, input them into the relevant statistical analysis formula/equation, and complete slew the results if it didn’t suit my agenda – assuming I had one.
All polls and poll results can be manipulated to suit an agenda.
I would really love to at least see photos of the trusty one thousand who provide ludicrous poll results, month in and month out. I would like their names and addresses even more so that I could confront them personally. That’s assuming they exist at all, which I doubt.
The bog warriors in the west love their enda….
God no anything but more of this rubbish. When will we ever realise that these guys ride the economic tide and screw the rest of us as they go. Zero hours contracts, minimum wage, job bridge – unpaid internships, greyhound workers locked out, google, Facebook and yahoo using us as backwater sink hole for international profit laundering ..you don’t have to be mad to work here …just dim …yeh let’s keep the blue shirts in ? Why not? In candor there is no choice? If anyone came forward with a true platform of public service, say for example cutting pay to politicians and cutting out life time pensions for 3 years work. Cut out that abuse and you’ve got my vote for life.
James,
You are upset thatt Google, FB and other multinationals come here for tax and provide jobs? Mate start a party cut politics salary, take away pension for people with only three years work and put higher and more strict tax on Multinationals.
What do you expect from SBP / anyway who gives a s*** rich always vote for the The status quo
Depressing that FG have risen by 3%. The way things are going, post-budget, they may stay put or even climb a little.
We truly do live in a nation of dopes.
It’ll still be our children and grand children paying off the debt in. Isn’t that the point, anymore?
So Niall who should we all vote for ?
Sinn Fein still doing well in every poll and every election -
I have to laugh with all the FF FG and Labour lackies still believing this bullshit spin.
We have become a nation that just bends over time after time and accepts more.
The only thing that annoy’s me more than any member of FF FG or Lab is anyone that votes for either party.Wake up folks this country is destroyed by the actions and greed of these parties.
If they get votes we deserve all we get.
Blues Shirts very quiet after last election………
Ah no way. I bet the canvasing for this poll was all the low paying tax payers on higher income than any of us who have been hammered by austerity. This is the only explanation as the article states they believe the economy has a better out look and back on track. I like most middle income earners do not see or experience that. If you are like me you’ll give them the boot in February 2016.
What a load of ?ullshite country still going the tubes
After 15 years here, I can still remember the response to my question about how Irish politics worked from a great customer…ahem…sure, don’t worry about that, it’s just one pack of cun×s after another. Seems bang on really in hindsight
Can’t believe anybody, bar the most stupid, thinks SF are in any in anyway, shape or form capable of running the Country..
Who ran the country into the ground in the last ten years ???
Such a fallacy argument,
FF messed up the country but that doesn’t mean that SF will make it better.
i beg to differ
Horse shit poll again media trying to con the people again with there givernment are great polls ,,,
Goes to show how stupid the people are. You get what you vote for.
All this poll tells me is that the majority of people in this country are deluded,stockholme syndrome suffering, idiots!
Or, the poll is telling you that based on the options presented, plenty of people would still vote for FG / FF. I’ve been polled on a number of occasions over the years. Twice at the door and once on the phone. The questions are presented thus:
“Out of these parties, who would be your current preference for government?” and then the parties are listed.
Then they might ask you whether you approve or disapprove of individual leaders etc etc.
It doesn’t necessarily mean they’re happy with the performance of the government. It means that out of the bunch on offer, they would pick who they’ve picked, be it SF, FF, FG, Labour or Independent/Other.
I wouldn’t in a million years vote for SF as their policies currently stand. I don’t find them to be credible opposition right now, as their soundbite policies don’t add up to a roadmap for running the country. I’d love to see a new party that was socially progressive and realistic on the economy – sadly one doesn’t exist.
Interesting analysis of this poll IF replicated in a General Election by Adrian Kavanagh Political Scientist NUI Maynooth http://adriankavanaghelections.org/2014/09/13/good-news-for-fine-gael-and-sinn-fein-constituency-level-analysis-of-the-sunday-business-post-red-c-poll-14th-september-2014/
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