Forty per cent of residents in Sweden’s now 61 no-go “troubled areas” fear for their safety when walking outside after dark.
The report examined data collected by the National Crime Prevention Council (Brå) in 61 of the country’s heavily migrant-populated “vulnerable areas” which are often also referred to as No Go Zones.
Such areas are now a Europe-wide phenomenon and were the subject of a recent book by Breitbart London editor-in-chief Raheem Kassam.
Johanna Skinnari, project manager at Brå, explained the Swedish findings: “An explanation is widespread crime and order problems. About half experience visible problems with littering, damage, car fires. There are also widespread problems with young people and gangs around, and in some areas, there is also open drug trafficking.”
The findings also show that women living in the no-go zones are far more likely to be afraid of going out at night compared to men, with over 50 per cent claiming to feel insecure – twice as many as those women living in other areas of the country.
“One explanation is that there are men who dominate public environments, especially in the evenings,” Skinnari said, and added that few women go out, leading to a “spiral where insecurity also increases”.
While Skinnari claimed that 70 per cent of residents found police to be “respectful”, many complained that officers were not doing enough to counter crime. Others, mainly young men, felt police went out of their way to harass them.
The study comes after a surge in violence across Sweden, prompting politicians to recommend the military be involved in helping police tackle crimes in No Go Zones — a proposal which Prime Minister Stefan Lofven refused to rule out.
Grenade attacks have also become a major problem in many areas, with some seeing huge increases in shootings. In 2017, the city of Helsingborg saw shootings increase by 300 per cent.
Sex attacks have also contributed to feelings of insecurity with even the police in Malmö warning women not to go out at night after a series of gang rape attacks late last year.
The police later backtracked on their warning saying their comments had been “unfortunate and unclear”.