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The teenage girls plucked up the courage to talk about their fear of being taken abroad – yet society did not act to help their siblings.
Aftonbladet can reveal that at least 36 siblings have disappeared, despite the warning signals.
– It is a betrayal of the children, says Devin Rexvid, at Stockholm University.
No one knows how many children are taken out of Sweden each year. How many children don’t get to finish school, who never get the chance to say goodbye to their friends.
There are no national statistics on the children who disappear, and Aftonbladet’s review has shown how children can go under society’s radar for several years without the municipality reacting.
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full screen Aftonbladet’s review shows how children can go under society’s radar for several years. The image is an illustration. Photo: Paul Wallander.
One of the tools to protect children who are at risk of being taken abroad is an exit ban according to the LVU. If a child is at risk of harm in another country, genital mutilation, being married off, being exposed to violence or lack of care, they can have their passport blocked.
But Aftonbladet’s review shows how the social services in several cases did not investigate all the children in a family, in connection with taking care of a sibling who is at risk of being abducted.
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full screenOften it is the teenage girls themselves who turn to the school or social services to tell about their vulnerable situation. The picture is an illustration. Photo: Paul Wallander
Despite the alarms – siblings are abducted
It often involves cases where teenage girls have testified about honor violence or other abuses at home.
In some cases, they have also told that their brothers or sisters have been subjected to violence.
But instead of investigating the other children in the family, society has not acted in time – and the siblings have disappeared.
Aftonbladet’s review shows that at least 36 siblings of children who have been taken into care and given an exit ban in the past two years have been taken away:
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full screen If it is judged that there is a risk of, among other things, remarriage, a decision can be made on an exit ban. Photo: Administrative Court.
Devin Rexvid is a senior lecturer at Stockholm University and researches issues related to honor-related violence. He thinks that you need to get better at investigating the situation of younger siblings in connection with an older sibling telling about honor violence.
– After all, they are under the same roof and in the same structures. Even if the older ones are currently more exposed, the younger children will grow up too, he says.
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full screen After the teenage girl told about the honor violence, her little sister was taken away and left with relatives she had never met. The image is an illustration. Photo: Paul Wallander
Expert: ignorance of preschoolers and honor
Devin Rexvid also believes that there is a prejudice that smaller children are not subjected to honor-related oppression.
– I think it is based on an ignorance that children of, for example, preschool age would be spared from honor checks, but studies I have done show the opposite: how they are exposed to limitations and are not allowed to develop certain physical abilities, among other things.
Matilda Eriksson, investigator at the Equality Authority, says that it is precisely in connection with a child in the family being taken into care that other siblings run the greatest risk of being taken out of the country.
– We have also seen that many who have been abducted have been known to the authorities for a long time, and this suggests that we must take a closer look at the situation in the entire family, says Matilda Eriksson.
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fullscreenMatilda Eriksson, investigator at the Equality Authority.
The curfew is imposed too late
Aftonbladet’s review also shows how applications for travel bans often come late, when the children have already disappeared.
39 children in the past two years have, at the time of the application for an exit ban, already been taken abroad or moved away with their parents so that the social services cannot find them.
According to a report from the Equality Authority, travel bans need to be used to a greater extent.
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full screen After the suicide attempt, the teenage girl told about the honor violence and she was taken into care. But when an exit ban was applied for her siblings, they had disappeared. The picture is an illustration Photo: Paul Wallander
Had been held captive
Matilda Eriksson believes that society generally waits too long to intervene and that the support for children who have been abducted and then returned home must be improved.
– Sweden is pretty good in the acute phase, but we have to get better in the early and the long-term, she says.
An example of how support is lacking in connection with someone returning home to Sweden is the case of the 17-year-old girl:
Together with her mother and siblings, she was held by her father against her will in Iraq for several months. After the mother managed to get help from the Ministry of Foreign Affairs to return to Sweden, they lived for just over a week in a sheltered accommodation, until the social service made the assessment that the shelter was no longer needed. Then they became homeless.
But after the 17-year-old tried to take her own life, she told BUP about how she was told that she would be married off and about the violence she and her siblings were subjected to. The 17-year-old was taken into custody and given an exit ban, but when an exit ban was applied for the siblings, they had disappeared.
Aftonbladet’s review shows that many of the travel bans only come after the children, the majority of whom are girls, have themselves contacted a community body to tell them about their vulnerability. According to Matilda Eriksson, too much responsibility is placed on the children themselves in the process of protecting them from honor oppression or abduction.
– It is a lot to ask of a child that they themselves should be the driving force in such a process. We talk a lot about the children’s rights perspective in Sweden, but we still have some work to do.
FACT Travel ban
In 2020, a regulation on travel ban was introduced in the law with special provisions on the care of young people, LVU, to protect children from being taken abroad for the purpose of genital mutilation or entering into child marriage. In June 2024, the travel ban was extended to be able to protect children to an even greater extent, such as for example during educational trips. The extended travel ban means that travel bans can also be decided in cases where there is a tangible risk that a child will be taken abroad and the child’s health or development will be damaged during the stay abroad through circumstances that may cause treatment according to the LVU.
An exit ban means that the child’s Swedish passport is blocked and revoked and that a new passport cannot be issued. When the exit ban is lifted, a new passport can be issued.
It is the administrative court that makes the decision on an exit ban after the social welfare board has applied for it. An exit ban must be reviewed every six months.
If the social service judges that it is not possible to wait for the administrative court’s decision, due to the risk of the child being taken abroad, the social welfare board can decide on a temporary travel ban, which is then examined by the administrative court.
If the administrative court has established a decision on a temporary exit ban, the social welfare committee must apply for an exit ban within four weeks of the decision, and if there is no longer reason for one, the social welfare committee must immediately decide that it should end.
Source: The National Board of Health and Welfare and Sweden’s municipalities and regions.
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FACT That’s how we did the review
Aftonbladet has reviewed all decisions on travel bans made at all administrative courts during 2023 and 2024, until October.
Based on the decisions, we have, among other things, looked at where the children are – if we knew where the children were or if they had strayed and if the children had siblings who were taken abroad.
We have also looked at whether it was suspected that the children were judged to be in an honorable context, how the investigations started and the children’s own testimonies. In several cases, we have supplemented by reviewing additional documents relating to the case and previous decisions that apply only to LVU for the children and their possible siblings.
The review is also based on a number of oral sources as well as documents from the School Inspectorate, the Social Insurance Agency, the Tax Agency, investigations, service records and municipalities’ monitoring of children’s compulsory education.
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