A teen's flight from Iraq
Hesha Nari Saleh endures a harrowing 2,000-mile journey from war-torn Iraq to seek refuge in Sweden – alone.
from the June 4, 2007 edition
Page 2 of 3
In Mosul late last year, many middle-class families were making plans to send their teenage sons abroad. Hesha says that he and his mother reasoned that "any place must be better than Iraq."
The man who organized the trip assured them that Hesha would be well taken care of. In the business of human smuggling, that is, of course, a relative concept. When the Turkish truck that carried the teen finally stopped in the southern Swedish port city of Malmö, the driver demanded more money before letting him out. Hesha paid him an additional 150 euros (about $200).
– Hesha Nari Saleh
The trucker then took the teen to the train station, showed him where to buy a ticket for Stockholm – and left. Speaking no Swedish and very little English, Hesha found himself rolling north through the wintry countryside with only a vague idea of what would happen next. "I looked out the train window and thought, this is what Sweden looks like," he recalls. "It's neat and tidy, and there is snow. But most of all I felt relief. I knew I wasn't going to die."
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Sweden takes its job as a refuge seriously. It provides free housing, classes in Swedish, healthcare services, a $400 startup check, and a daily cash stipend of about $10 to those who settle here. The provisions for unaccompanied child refugees are even more extensive. They start with the state providing adult supervision and temporary guardians and, often, help with managing their own money for the first time.
"We also know that even if they're 17 now, our responsibility won't end when they turn 18," says Nils-Erik Färnbrink, refugee coordinator in Danderyd, a county northeast of Stockholm that recently announced it would accept five refugee children. "They must finish high school, they must have housing, and maybe other support."
The government recently raised its reimbursement to counties that take in refugees in the hope of getting the children out of shelters and into foster homes and group homes. But even those communities that have agreed to accept refugee children say it usually takes several months to line up homes and schools.
***
At the bustling train station in downtown Stockholm where Hesha showed up Jan. 30, a stranger ignored his request in halting English for directions to the immigration office. Confused, the teen wandered around the cold city for several hours until he overheard a man speaking Kurdish and asked for help.
The man whisked him onto a subway train and took him straight to the immigration center. There, Hesha applied for asylum, becoming one of 59 unaccompanied Iraqi minors to do so that month.
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