Living on the edge: Moroccan youth on the streets of Sweden

When freezing winds sweep through deserted Stockholm streets and the sun disappears before most people make it back from lunch, it can be hard to imagine that more than 1,000 migrants arrived here each day in the hope of a prosperous new life. 

It’s even harder to picture that these cold concrete streets have become home for hundreds of young men who have travelled all the way across the continent to sleep rough in one of the coldest cities in Europe.

But when darkness falls and most office workers are making their way home, squares, tunnels and local McDonald’s restaurants are filled with homeless people; beggars and various groups of young men who are now the focal point of a fierce immigration debate. Sweden took in 163,000 asylum seekers and many more migrants during 2015, the highest per capita in Europe. 

“This is where we come to relax after a busy day in the city," says Said, a young Moroccan originally from Tangier who could easily be confused for any Stockholm teenager with his hip-hop clothes and fluent Swedish.

He and his friends approach the counter of a tiny kebab shop on the outskirts of Stockholm and order a couple of plates of food to share. The take-away, which sells a set menu of Arabic food, is crowded with young men, eating at the tables along the walls while they chat carelessly about life.

Ten more guys stand outside smoking cigarettes while talking to people who happen to pass them by, some of whom stay to investigate the take-away menu and, occasionally, step inside to join the crowd.

Try and try again

According to Swedish asylum laws, anyone under the age of 18 is considered to be a child and therefore falls in the underage migrants category. This allows them to be granted asylum at the initial stage, even if the applicant is missing official documents. However, once the applicant turns 18, many are refused asylum based on their circumstances. They often end up being deported if the authorities are able to prove the country of their origin.

“See that guy,” says Said while pointing at a group of young men who briefly stop outside before quickly disappearing into the shopping centre. “He’s been deported more than three times,” he says while putting three fingers high above his head. “He gets caught, thrown in jail, deported but then - boom - he’s back.”

“You know, the problem is that Moroccans don’t get asylum and we know that, so there’s no point for us to sit in the sticks and wait. You don’t travel across the continent just to sit in the countryside with nothing around you until they might decide to send you back,” he adds as he and his friends leave a few notes on the counter before heading out.  

While the wind blows through the streets, the men walk up to a pair of benches, sit down and open a can of soft drink they bought at the take-away. A couple of girls walk past and the guys immediately start a conversation. “Bra?” some of them say in Swedish, meaning: “All good?” The girls nod, giggle and stop to exchange a few phrases about last night’s party, before disappearing into the shopping centre.

It's all about luck?

“You know some guys get lucky,” says Said, while lighting a cigarette. “They come here, meet a girl and when they turn 18 they get married. The girlfriends probably don’t even know that they’ve come here in a lorry,” he pauses, and then looks out on a motorway. “On something like this one,” he continues while pointing to a two-storey truck driving towards Stockholm.  

Many of the young Moroccans who have found their way to Sweden do not have identity papers back in Morocco, and are effectively stateless. Children from Morocco have, in most cases, not got any grounds for asylum. But because they often lack identity documents, for many years, no direct deportations have been done from Sweden to Morocco as the country refuses to deal with stateless migrants.

“When you’re a little boy, you think big. I thought of getting over the sea over to the other side," recalls Said. "I saw loads of guys trying their luck. They would hide underneath lorries on ferries that left for Spain. Some of them made it. Some time later we heard stories about their great life in Europe. So when I was 15 I thought: why not me?”

But Said's attempts to reach Europe involved the constant risk of being discovered by the authorities - and extreme physical dangers on the road. “They caught me the first time… and the second… and the third, but then I realised that if I hid close enough to the engine, they wouldn’t be able to find me. So thinking that I was a genius, I folded myself up to fit and was able to hold on once we reached the other side and the lorry started to drive.

"Once it took off, the engine got really hot. It felt like being fried in a frying pan, but I couldn’t jump off because it was moving, you know. I was just praying to get a bit of fresh air, but I should have been careful what I wished for because once the lorry hit the motorway and picked up speed, I felt like I would freeze to death.

"Finally the driver pulled off for a break and I crawled out by the motorway. I was completely covered in oil – entirely black from top to bottom. The driver almost had a heart attack when he saw me. He said: 'Did you come here in this lorry? Are you insane? Go away! You’ll get me in trouble!'”

“I got scared and started running. Then I realised that I didn’t even know where I was. I turned around and shouted: 'at least tell me where I am'. He said: 'You’re almost in Madrid, now go!'” recalls Said while laughing at his own memories.

“I slept rough at the start but it didn’t take long before I realised that there were many guys like me in the streets. Pretty much everywhere – making money the same way as back in Morocco. Through that, I was able to make my way through Europe and finally reach Sweden with the help of other Moroccans. There are many of us now, we’re able to build each other up.”  

Mounting pressure takes it toll

It is, perhaps, this precise increase of young Moroccans that has raised concerns in Sweden and around the EU. According to Swedish Home Office reports, the number of unaccompanied youths is one of the fastest growing categories of migrants reaching Scandinavia, putting the social services under strain like never before.

“Many of these kids have had a very hard upbringing. That’s why it’s a challenge to work with these kids, because many of them can’t do much else,” Mikael Jeppson, general manager for youth social services in Stockholm, told Middle East Eye. “They’ve been using drugs since they were little, they probably never had a job, and we don’t know how much schooling they had access to either. These kids basically only know life in the streets."

The issue of stateless migrants has become a diplomatic minefield between Sweden and Morocco. The youths are pawns in a bigger political picture and Sweden’s attitude to the occupied West Sahara plays a part in the impasse over their status. 

As a result, diplomatic relationships between Sweden and Morocco have been put under pressure, to the point where the Swedish Foreign Minister Anders Ygerman put in an official request to the Moroccan government to urgently deal with the 80,000 young men living in the streets of Tangier.

Jouad Chouaib from Beyti, an organisation that deal with street children in Morocco, says: “The first problem is that many of these kids are almost adults. We only help them for a few months because we can only help minors. The second problem is that many of these kids don’t want to go home and the services we provide are voluntary for the kids to use.”

“The problem is not that Morocco doesn’t want to take care of their kids," says Chouaib. "It’s more that the Moroccan government doesn’t see them as kids who need protection, but as criminals who should be punished."

In 2014, 7,000 underage refugees applied for asylum in Sweden, while a year later the number was up to just over 23,000 – almost equalling the number of unaccompanied young migrants claiming asylum in the whole of the EU a year before.

Reported sexual assaults by North African youths have prompted protests in both Berlin and Calais, but also a spike in anti-foreigner violence in Sweden, with up to a dozen arson attacks reported on homes for unaccompanied migrants carried out by various right-wing groups. 

While it’s hard to estimate the total number of young North Africans living outside the system, the Stockholm police report that as many as 200 young men and children move around the city streets each night, some of whom are as young as nine years old.

This increase was so sharp that the authorities declared a crisis and requested a "substantial increase in resources" to cope with the situation. 

As part of this request, the Swedish government started to enforce the Dublin agreement on a wider scale, which allowed them to cross-reference with the asylum seeking register and send young men back to the country where they first claimed asylum.

Back to the drawing board

Said’s friend Mohammed, who has lived in Sweden for many years, got deported to the UK where he first claimed asylum.

“I was claiming asylum here in Sweden. They sent me back to England where they took my fingerprints while I was living around the streets of Europe. Once I got off the plane, the English police took me to some sort of refugee camp. None of the guys there, including myself, had any papers because we fled as kids and not only kids, but also as street kids. One day, they decided to send me back. Suddenly I found myself in the streets of Morocco. I had not been there for years. Tell me, what can I do in Morocco? Where should I go?”

“So I knew that I had to make my way back. I went to the port where I jumped on my first lorry when I was a kid. It took a while before I was successful.

"I still remember the day when I got caught three times in the same day. They took me to the police station, the same officer asked me the same questions and then let me go. I kept on trying for three weeks. And then, one day, I got lucky. So I made my way to Sweden, because the people I knew were here.”

“Since I’ve been back, I‘ve been sleeping wherever I can, getting money however I can. I cannot go back to the authorities now, because this time, they’ll send me back for sure! It’s been many years and I’m no longer under 18, so I just stick around, hoping to find a way. “

Sweden: The future is uncertain 

Having young adults and children sleeping on the streets hasn’t been a Swedish problem since before the Second World War, following the creation of the socialist system that gave everyone access to basic needs.

This is perhaps also the reason why Sweden has become a major destination for many migrants and why it’s the country accepting more migrants per capita than any other European state, despite its remote geographical location.

But with recent developments, Swedish authorities are reported to be struggling with the situation and, as a result, are taking drastic measures, starting with putting up border controls and, most recently, announcing mass deportations of more than 80,000 failed asylum seekers. This has changed Sweden into a country where the future is uncertain, leaving a huge number of young men on the streets prepared to take their destiny into their own hands.

“If we were to send a message for any of our fellow North Africans,” says Mohammed as he lights another cigarette. “We would say that if you want to come here, prepare yourself to be hungry, prepare yourself to sleep in the streets and if everything else fails, prepare to get back on that boat again.”