For the longest time I had not seen any evidence of the thousand refugees a day that were coming to Sweden. I had read many news articles talking about the influx of refugees all over Europe. I also know that Sweden has a very tolerant asylum stance. It just hadn't been very obvious to me in my tiny village.
I don't go to Malmö so much, but we had gone for my birthday and I hadn't seen any signs of refugees. Zoë had gone to the immigration office to get a new residence card, and of course she said it was chaos. Finally when we went for Chris' birthday I saw it. The central station in Malmö was full of people sleeping on the ground, police, and signs like this.
About two weeks ago they started passport control into Sweden. So if you are on the train from Denmark over the Öresunds bridge, the cops won't let anyone off at the first stop in Sweden until all papers are checked. It's not such a hassle really, it's just odd to see how things change. Especially when the majority population of a country is running from war and famine. It also makes you very aware of how first world problems are not problems at all, and how something you had no control over, like being born in a truly free country, is the best thing that could have happened to you.
Posted with Blogsy
No comments:
Post a Comment