The Sweden Democrats a right wing populist party in Swedish Riksdag has proposed to open the borders for refugees fleeing Ukraine. The genuine distress of refugees goes into people’s hearts and those in distress are cared for like their own families. This is also the case in southern Sweden, where the distress of the Ukrainians has led the Swedish Democrats to take turns working for those fleeing the war, Aftonbladet says. Teddy Nilsson, the Swedish Democratic municipal chairman of Svalöv, sat down at the negotiating table as soon as Russia invaded Ukraine. Representatives of the Defense Forces and the Finnish Immigration Service were also present at the crisis meeting, as well as the accommodation of refugees from Ukraine. The situation was historic in the sense that Nilsson is known for his critical attitude to the events of the 2015 refugee crisis, among other things.
We immediately started planning, even though we didn’t even know how many refugees had already come here, Nilsson describes.
In Svalöv, 50 Ukrainians work on a local vegetable farm, so it was possible that the crowd would seek refuge from relatives. A day later, it became clear that 50 people had already entered the municipality at the foot of the war. One week later, there were 200 refugees. However, no one knows the exact figures, as almost not all those who have come from Ukraine have registered with the authorities. For comparison, throughout 2021 the municipality received 10 refugees.
Flag of Ukraine displayed as a symbol of solidarity
In the neighboring town of Svalöv, Bjuv, the Ukrainian flag was hoisted the day after the Russian invasion. Bjuv is run by the Swedish Democrats and the municipality has sent money to the UN refugee organization and provided accommodation for refugees under one unit of time. Refugees also came to the municipality in 2015, but the difference is clear: There were a lot of loose people involved at the time. Even people who fled a country they had never visited are mentioned by Mikael Henrysson, the Swedish Democratic chairman of the municipal government. Today is another sound on the clock:
We welcome these people with open arms because they really need protection against Putin’s aggression.
“It feels like I’ve come home”
The helpfulness and caring of the inhabitants of the small settlements gives silver to the refugee even on a dark day. Jevgenia arrived with her young child in the middle of chaos in the peace of southern Sweden and now describes her conditions as follows:
– It feels like I have come home, the people take care of us as if we were our own family.
Ukrainians are European and fleeing their European country to another European country so by taking enough refugees from Ukraine we would have filled European countries enough in the sense that economic theories such as, aging population, not enough tax payers and shortages of workers would all be filled by Ukrainians meaning there is no longer an excuse to take refugees in future from other continents.
