For a year, lies about Swedish authorities kidnapping children from Muslim families have been spread on social media. Messages that these children are forced to eat pork and drink alcohol abound on accounts with millions of followers.
30 percent of the 201 social services that answered the TV4 Nyheternas survey say that their work has been affected by the LVU campaign. A majority of these say that they need to put more work into informing that the social service is there to help – not destroy.
But many municipalities have also changed their security work, due to the increasing threat image that the LVU campaign has led to.
23 municipalities answer that, for example, they make more accurate risk assessments and involve the municipality’s security department more often. A couple that they handed out alarms or removed the municipality’s stickers from cars.
Dialogue in focus
But in Uppsala, it is the dialogue that is in focus:
– I wouldn’t say that the LVU campaign affected the way the threats look, because we have had serious incidents in the past as well, says Tomas Odin, director of social services Uppsala, who believes that the big problem with the LVU campaign is that it makes dialogue in society difficult, just when it is most needed.
Evin Bider and Basem Al-Nabulsi have worked as community counselors in Uppsala for a year. They hold information meetings at preschools, schools and associations.
– We deal with parents’ questions and fears. We also try to explain how social services really work, to reduce misinformation, says Evin Bider.
Disinformation takes hold
They both think that the dialogue works well and have received a very positive response from parents who have attended the meetings.
– Child rearing is a big issue – how to raise children and how parents should treat their children, says Basem Al-Nabulsi.
Social services have been too invisible, think both Evin Bider and Basem Al-Nabulsi, who notice that the LVU campaign’s message has taken hold with some citizens.
– We meet parents who believe that children are taken into care for no reason and that the families will never see their children again, says Evin Bider.
– Then we answer that it is not correct. The goal of social services is for the children to return to their families, and for both the children and the families to be well, with the right efforts, she continues.
“They take children”
Wala Zeiabak in Gottsunda has heard a lot of negative things about the Swedish social service on social media and on Arabic TV channels. She doesn’t know what to believe.
– We heard that they are taking children from the family, so I feel afraid for my children. I don’t know if it’s true or not, but we’re scared.
But Henrik Yohannai, also a Gottsunda resident, does not believe in the LVU campaign’s message.
– It’s just bullshit, I don’t believe it. I don’t think they come and just pick the children, there is something behind it.