(Local) The riots that rocked Swedish cities over the Easter holidays were nothing to do with religion or ethnicity, but instead come down to class, the joint leader of Sweden’s Green Party has told the Local in an interview. Ahead of a […]
(Local) Police in western Sweden have rejected an appeal by the Danish extremist Rasmus Paludan against a decision to deny him permission for a Koran-burning protest in Borås. “Rasmus Paludan has a rhetoric which is intended to create disorder and chaos,” Emelie […]
(Local) Norwegian police used tear gas against several people during a Koran-burning demonstration on Saturday afternoon, after hundreds of counter-demonstrators clashed with police in the town of Sandefjord. The anti-Muslim organisation “Sian” held the demonstration in Sandefjord, which is about 90 kilometres […]
(Local) Campaign movement Repatriate the Children (RTC) plans to sue the Danish state for its failure to evacuate five children from Syrian detention camps. The organisation is to sue Denmark on behalf of the five children, who have Danish citizenship but have […]
(Local) A Danish woman with dual nationality is to be evacuated along with her children from a detention camp in Syria, in an exception to normal government policy. Immigration minister Mattias Tesfaye has defended the government’s decision to evacuate a woman and […]
(Local) A 22-year-old man who is accused of stabbing seven people in the southern Swedish town of Vetlanda is set to face trial. The man was arrested shortly after the attacks, which took place on five different locations close to Vetlanda’s railway […]
(Local) Prime Minister Mette Frederiksen says her ambition is for Denmark not to offer asylum to any refugees at all. The PM said that she wanted to reduce asylum applications in Denmark to zero during comments in parliament. “That’s what our target […]
(Local) The government is suspected — by its own political allies in parliament — of withholding a 2019 report by police intelligence agency PET on Danish children in camps in Syria. According to the report by newspaper Ekstra Bladet, PET concluded in […]
(Local) Denmark’s government is to separately classify people from or with heritage in primarily Muslim countries and regions in official statistics related to topics such as crime and employment. Immigration and integration minister Mattias Tesfaye has signalled his support for the statistical […]
(Local) A 23-year-old man has been sentenced to life in jail over the brutal murder of his 17-year-old girlfriend, who sparked a huge search when she went missing in western Sweden last year. Tishko Ahmed denied the charges throughout the trial, but […]
(Local) A majority told a new survey it did not matter to them where their neighbour came from, but more than one in five Swedes said they felt negatively about the idea of living next to someone with a Muslim or Middle […]
(Local) Norway’s broadcasting ombudsman has received close to a hundred complaints this week after state broadcaster NRK gave the Muslim Eid celebrations the sort of coverage normally given to Christmas. According to Erik Skarrud, the ombudsman’s secretary, the organisation received 93 reports […]
(Local) Denmark’s integration minister has celebrated statistics showing more people with refugee backgrounds leaving the country than arriving as “lovely numbers.” According to the analysis by the Ministry of Immigration and Integration, the number of people granted asylum in Denmark who had […]
(Local) French President Emmanuel Macron will hold a long-awaited speech on Tuesday afternoon to reveal the government’s new strategy to fight Islamist extremism. “We need to accept that there is what I would call a separatism in our Republic today,” the president said […]
(Local) Sweden plans to expedite the rejection of “unfounded” asylum requests by implementing a list of countries deemed to be completely safe. The plans would allow the Migration Agency to handle asylum cases from countries on the list as a “fast-track.” These […]
(Local) Swedish Prime Minister Stefan Löfven’s visit to Israel included attending a major event to commemorate victims of the Holocaust, but also discussing concerns about anti-Semitism in Sweden today. “Swedish Jews worry about anti-Semitism and do not feel completely comfortable showing publicly […]
(Local) Sweden’s prime minister has called for a serious reduction in the number of asylum seekers coming to Sweden, in a swing to the right on asylum that is already endangering his coalition deal with the pro-immigration Green Party. In an interview […]
(Local) A senior politician for Norway’s far-right Progress Party has called for a total moratorium on new refugees in Oslo, as her party mulls what price it will demand for staying part of Norway’s coalition government. Tone Ims Larssen told [the] Norwegian […]
(Local) The government is to work for tough new laws on citizens convicted of foreign militant activity, but is likely to be challenged by parties to its left. Prime Minister Mette Frederiksen, along with Minister of Justice Nick Hækkerup and Minister for […]
(Local) The government is to announce new policies clamping down on individuals who have connections to foreign militant groups. Prime Minister Mette Frederiksen, along with Minister of Justice Nick Hækkerup and Minister for Immigration and Integration Mattias Tesfaye, will on Thursday present […]
(Local) Last year, 111,094 people applied for asylum in Germany — a drop of 14.3 percent compared to the previous year. Government figures show 8,534 fewer applications for asylum were submitted in 2019 than in the previous year when 129,628 claims were […]
(Local) Prime Minister Mette Frederiksen has praised police after a major anti-terror operation in Denmark on Wednesday. 20 people were arrested in a major anti-terror operation at several locations in the country, with a number of the arrested individuals suspected of terrorism offences. […]
(Local) The Danish government has withdrawn the citizenship of a man who is wanted for suspected terrorism, applying a hotly-debated new law. The man’s lawyer, Mette Grith Stage, confirmed to newspaper Berlingske that his citizenship had been revoked. A 25-year-old Danish-Turkish citizen […]
(Local) 71 Syrians have been paid since May 1st this year by the Danish state to leave the country and return home, figures from the Danish Refugee Council show. The figures were reported by newspaper Kristeligt Dagblad on Friday. Each left the country with […]
(Local) An EU-funded report from a Turkish thinktank has caused outrage in Denmark after it accused the country of widespread Islamophobia, with “exclusionary” political campaigns, and “a normalisation of everyday discrimination of Muslims.” The “European Islamophobia Report 2018” was put together by […]
(Local) An expedited bill, enabling the immigration minister to revoke the passports of Danes who join foreign militant groups, was passed by parliament on Thursday. The law is aimed primarily at individuals who have fought for the Islamic State (Isis) terror group […]
(Local) Denmark’s Minister for Immigration and Integration Mattias Tesfaye has said he does not want to hand the power to revoke passports to parliament. A number of political parties have called for parliament to be given the power to withdraw passports, rather […]
(Local) The leader of Sweden’s Centre Party has said she “regrets” a party vote to work for a ban on non-medical circumcision, after Jewish and Muslim groups criticized the decision. What happened? Sweden’s Centre Party voted in favour of banning circumcision (omskärelse) […]
(Local) If you are in or around Geneva this week, you will likely spot soldiers and armoured cars on the streets or near the Cointrin airport. Here’s why. While the presence of nearly 1,500 soldiers, dozens of police officers, as well as […]
(Local) Plans to accommodate “unwanted” migrants on Lindholm, an uninhabited Danish island, have been officially scrapped by the Social Democratic government. Minister for Immigration and Integration [Mattias] Tesfaye gave on Thursday official confirmation that the facility, plans for which were put in […]
(Local) A law requiring newly-nationalized Danes to shake hands with a representative at their citizenship ceremonies should be scrapped, say a number of Social Democratic mayors prior to the party’s upcoming national congress. As part of new rules on citizenship which came […]
(Local) The Swedish Migration Agency will no longer issue residence permits to all refugees coming from Syria, ending a generous policy which over the last six years has seen over 100,000 Syrians granted asylum in the country. In September 2013, Sweden was […]
(Local) In a surprise move, the Swiss government on Wednesday outlined draft measures that include a travel ban for people permitted to stay in Switzerland on a temporary basis after having their bid for asylum rejected. Under the draft law, the around […]
(Local) A Kazakh citizen is being questioned on suspicion of taking part in a terror conspiracy, after he was arrested in a northern Swedish city over what first appeared to be a traffic offence. The man, who denies the allegations, was remanded […]
(Local) The situation for 12 Danish citizens in the al-Hol refugee camp in northeastern Syria is reported to have become so serious that humanitarian organizations have urged the Scandinavian country to act. Summer temperatures exceeding 40 degrees Celsius have significantly worsened conditions, […]
(Local) A controversial ban on wearing face-masking garments in public, widely referred to as the “burqa ban,” came into effect in Denmark on August 1st last year. Since then, 23 people have been fined under the law, according to National Police figures […]
(Local) Sweden’s security service Säpo has requested the deportation of several individuals believed to be linked to international terror organizations. Säpo head Klas Friberg did not want to confirm the number of people concerned or to give further information about their identity, […]
(Local) Plans to accommodate “unwanted” migrants on Lindholm, an uninhabited Danish island, are to be scrapped by Mette Frederiksen’s incoming government. The outgoing coalition led by Lars Løkke Rasmussen reached a deal late last year to place up to 125 rejected asylum […]
(Local) Spain’s Interior Ministry has denied that Spain has raised its terror alert level amid fears of an imminent attack. You may have seen headlines in the British and Irish press this week warning tourists that Spain has “raised” its terror alert […]
(Local) A local council controlled by the anti-immigration Sweden Democrats has banned praying during work hours in its schools, old people’s homes and council offices. Council politicians in Bromölla, on Skåne’s north-eastern coast, voted through the new guidelines for municipality workplaces last […]
(Local) A municipality in southern Sweden has voted to ban the Islamic headscarf in schools for children under the age of 13, in a first for Sweden. The populist measure is part of a new “integration plan” for the town of Staffanstorp, […]
(Local) The number of reported rapes and other sexual offences has been on the rise in Sweden since 2005 and has seen two distinct spikes: one between 2005 and 2008 and another after 2015. There is little disagreement on these basic facts. […]
(Local) A Swedish woman was sentenced to 15 years in prison by an Iraqi court on Sunday for her involvement with the terror group Isis. The woman has been imprisoned in Iraq since autumn when she was convicted of entering the country […]
(Local) The Supreme Court, Sweden’s highest court of law, will not grant a second appeal by the father of an 11-year-old girl killed in the 2017 Stockholm terror attack. The decision comes more than two years after Rakhmat Akilov, an Uzbek national, […]
(Local) The chief executive of a largely Muslim free school in Gothenburg has been placed in custody by the Swedish Migration Agency on the orders of the country’s Säpo security police. It follows the arrests of other imams in recent months. He […]
(Local) The seven young children of dead Isis fighter Michael Skråmo are being cared for by social services in Sweden, after being flown to Gothenburg from Iraq. The children, aged between one and eight, were left orphaned after their father was killed in […]
(Local) The seven young children of dead Isis fighter Michael Skråmo have been taken from a Syrian refugee camp to Swedish authorities in Iraq, from where they will be brought home to Sweden. The children, aged between one and eight, were left […]
(Local) A controversial imam seized by Swedish authorities risks death if deported to Iraq, his family have claimed. Abu Raad, who works at the al-Rashideen mosque in the city of Gävle, was seized on Wednesday and … placed in a migration detention […]
(Local) The latest Swiss Federal Office of Police (Fedpol) annual report provides an insight into Switzerland’s jihadists. Here’s what it tells us about them including where they are from and how many are Swiss. The report looks at jihad-related police investigations and […]
(Local) The seven children of dead Isis fighter Michael Skråmo have been given the green light to be taken from a Syrian refugee camp to Sweden’s consulate in Iraq, reports TV4. Kurdish authorities in Iraq announced on Friday that the children of […]
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