“Sweden is a humanitarian superpower.”
Carl Bildt, Foreign Minister, Sweden

As a former “asylombud” (legal advisor for asylum seekers) myself, and through the stories told to me during almost seven years by administrators and decision makers with the Swedish Migration Board, I have acquired extensive knowledge about migration in general and the asylum process in particular. (Two books have been published with these stories, in Swedish: Inte svart eller vitt utan svart och vitt 2008-2011 and Inte svart eller vitt utan svart och vitt 2012-mars 2014) Many people contact me and ask for help and advice: refugees, asylum seekers, people who want other kind of information than the one sided propaganda that they get from Swedish politicians and media and Swedish nationals who get married to foreign nationals and want to bring their spouses to Sweden.

With the permission from Sven, a Swedish man living in Sweden and working at sea, who is married to a woman from China, Mai Ling, I publish his latest letter to his wife. They miss each other and she wants to join him and they want to start their life together in Sweden. This has not been possible, and it seems very difficult to arrange, since the Sweden, through its Migration Board, gives priority to asylum seekers and puts its own citizens last on the list. By the way: Sweden is the country in EU that receives far more asylum seekers and also give asylum or residence permits to far more people than any other EU-country, taking into consideration that Sweden has only 9,5 million inhabitans and out of them an estimated 3,5 — 4 million work and pay taxes… In 2014 some 90.000 asylumseekers are expected to arrive in Sweden, where there is already a screaming shortage of housing, work, schools etc.

Anyway, back to Sven and Mai Ling. The letter from the husband to his wife is published with the permission of Sven and can be read exactly as he wrote it to Mai Ling, no changes or corrections are made.

22 July 2014

Mai Ling, my love,

I have just now paid for the ticket to Dubai and back.

Now I am very unhappy. I have spent a lot of time trying to find out if there is something wrong with your application. From my ship I contacted a lawyer and asked for help with my contact with the Migration Board in Sweden. She told me what questions I should ask them.

On 13 June I sent all my questions to the Migration Board.

On 22 June I sent a copy of the mail to a woman in Sweden who has great knowledge about how the Migration Board works. I found out that I (a male Swedish citizen who wants to live with his wife) have no priority compared to non-Swedish citizens and that I can expect to have to wait even a year or more for the permit.

On 24 June I sent the same questions again from my ship to the Migration Board, because I didn’t get any answers on my mail.

On 10 July I sent the same questions from my home to the Migration Board because I didn’t get any answers on my mail.

On 16 July the Migration Board answered my first mail and told me that the application was registered. It took them all this time just to inform me that the application was registered!?!??

Today, 22 July, the Migration Board answered my second mail. They told me that the application was registered on 11 March. But they also told me that the application is still at the embassy in Abu Dhabi! The reason is that you have not been in the Embassy for the interview. The application has been lying in Abu Dhabi for 4 months, waiting to be completed!

And I’m still waiting for the answers from the Migration Board on my third mail…

Mai Ling!

Didn’t Thomas (mutual friend who translates information for Mai Ling) read the mails that you got from the Migration Board in March? Didn’t he explain to you what you must do?

Every week now, there are about 2500 people from Syria. Iran, Iraq, Afghanistan, Somalia and so on coming to Sweden and all of them want to live here. The Swedish government guarantee those who get a residence permit housing, free education, almost free health care and a lifelong supply of money for living. And it seems that almost everyone is getting a permanent residence here.

When it comes to applications like ours —non-European woman who marries a Swedish man — we are placed at the very end of the queue. That’s the way it is and there is nothing that I can do about it.

I will fly down to Dubai in the beginning of next week (28:th of July) so then we can go to the Embassy together. Can you call the Embassy and make an appointment for next week? But with all these people coming to Sweden every week, we can’t expect our application to be approved until maybe sometime the next year. It may even take longer, I really don’t know.

Maybe it is better that we cancel the application for a permit and you stay in Sweden using the same kind of visa that you used when you visited me last time? Maybe it will be possible for you to go to Denmark and renew the visa once a month — I am investigating if this would be a possible option.

Another option is to buy you a Syrian citizenship because with that you will get permanent visa very quickly from the Migration Board in Sweden. The cost for that is very cheap compared to the cost of — worst case scenario — the tickets for going back to Dubai or Denmark every month/every three months to renew your visiting visa. The only problem with this is that you look Chinese and not Syrian…

The next option is that you don’t go back to Dubai after your one month/three month visa has expired. That is of course against the law, but I really don’t care. You are my wife and it is my fundamental human right to live together with you!

The last option(s) is that I move to Dubai or China.

Please let Thomas read this and discuss the matter with him until I come down to Dubai.

As always: don’t forget that I love you!

Kisses,
Sven

Sweden is not the paradise that so many people around the world still think that it is! On the contrary. And Sweden is deviating more and more from its neighbouring Nordic countries and from the other EU-countries. On so many levels and in so many ways.

My previous texts — Stories from “Sweden, a Humanitarian Superpower” # 1 to # 11 — can all be read in this collection!