You’ve Heard of ‘Anchor Babies’, Now Hear About Sweden’s ‘Grappling Hook Kids’

You’ve heard of anchor babies. Now get ready for grappling hook kids, as an “extraordinary” number of unaccompanied minors arrive in Sweden and use the claimed right to a family life to fly their parents over too.

The Swedish government expects a record 12,000 unaccompanied immigrant children to arrive this year, more than any other European country. The number is almost double the figure in 2014, which itself was up 80 per cent on 2013. Unaccompanied minors can expect better treatment in most European countries as child protection laws kick in to provide for under-18’s – and Sweden is especially generous.

The volume of people incoming has placed unprecedented strain on existing Swedish social service infrastructure, with the state unable to provide enough guardians for the children arriving. Radio Sweden reports between 600 and 700 are arriving a week in the country, which could put the true number over the course of the year over 30,000, significantly more than the official 12,000 figure. The Migration Agency has put out a “distress call” for more funding and resources in an open letter on the agency website, claiming that “an extraordinary situation requres extraordinary solutions”.

The agency was rebuffed by the minister for migration, who said that while the situation was “very troubling”, there would be no new funding this year and they’d have to adapt within their present framework to cope. Almost all minors who manage to make it to Sweden are given residency rights.

The Swedish Migration Agency outlines the special rights children have on their website, including “the right to be heard”, giving them access to special immigration tribunals at which they are more likely to have their cases accepted than adults, and a right to be re-united with their parents. The knock on of this is once a child has travelled to Sweden with the help of illegal people smugglers, the Swedish government will then go out to their country of origin and seek out the child’s parents and fly them to Sweden to-reunite the family – at the expense of the Swedish taxpayers.

This practice contrasts with so-called ‘anchor babies’, a controversial topic in countries like the United States where illegal immigrants try for a child as soon as they arrive to use local law to prevent themselves being deported. In the case of Sweden, it is possible for parents in what the government considers to be unsafe countries to send their children ahead as a sort of grappling hook, drawing themselves in once residence permits are granted.

Al-Jazeera reports the careful process of research and consideration that these parents undertake before deciding which Western country to send their children to. Relaying the tale of Chamdin, at 16 a fully-fledged adult in most societies but to the Swedish government still a vulnerable minor. The report states:

“After doing some research on the Internet regarding conditions for asylum seekers in different countries, the family chose Sweden. Most countries treat underage asylum seekers with more leniency than their adult peers, but Sweden enjoys a reputation as a particularly generous host”.

On the accomodation he enjoys in Malmö, where almost all of the youth a young men: “a cozy residence with a communal area featuring couches, a large dining table and a kitchen, where staff prepare meals for the 25 boys residing here… Each of the boys has a private bedroom. There are communal rooms with TV sets and game consoles as well… At Chamdin’s residence in the neighborhood of Rosengård, the boys have a list of items they’d like the social workers to purchase. Recently Chamdin got very lucky: When he told his social worker that he needed new clothes, an iPad and a monthly bus pass, he soon received the first two along with a bike”.

“Many extended families pool their money to allow one teenager to be smuggled to Sweden. Once young people gain asylum, they are entitled to sponsor their families. Immigration officials assist with the paperwork and, if the family lacks the means to pay for the trip, help with the cost of the trip as well”.

This is a situation that may not persist. While the left-wing government has insisted mass migration to Sweden and the burden on taxpayers that comes with “is not a problem that will go away. The wars in the world are still going on”, a new force in Swedish politics is ascendant. A new YouGov poll released today reveals the anti-immigration, nationalist Sweden Democrat party is the most popular party in the country, having doubled its support in just a year.

The swing in support is credited to national concern about the ill effects of mass migration, and a sudden wave of migrant violence, not least the recent double murder in an IKEA store and gang rape of a young woman by Eritrean migrants.

Follow Oliver Lane on Twitter: Follow @Oliver_Lane or e-mail to: olane@breitbart.com