It was in November this year that Imran, a student at Linköping University, was to begin his internship at the Swedish Research Institute in Istanbul, SFII. He would be given the role of newspaper editor and events manager.
Imran found accommodation, prepared to write his thesis there and applied for a scholarship linked to the internship.
Connected to safe mode
But it all went to waste. A few weeks before he was to start, the internship offer was withdrawn.
– As a Turkish citizen in Sweden, I knew that the tense political situation between the countries would affect me. It was only a matter of time.
Imran wasn’t at all surprised by the news, but it was still disappointing. At the same time, he has difficulty understanding the background to the institution’s decision. Via an email from SFII, the student learned that the internship stop is linked to the security situation in Sweden in light of the Koran burnings.
Declined interview
SVT has been in contact with the Ministry of Foreign Affairs to ask about who is affected by this and how it has been reasoned around the decision. The Foreign Ministry declined an interview and replied in a written comment that “a foreign authority that cannot offer an internship may be due, for example, to a lack of space, operational reasons or security concerns”, but that they do not go into further detail regarding Sweden’s security.
Hear Imran tell more in the clip above.