ABC News(NEW YORK) — Just a few days after President Trump’s remarks on Saturday about what he said happened “last night in Sweden,” unrest erupted in a Stockholm suburb, home to a large immigrant population. Rioters set cars on fire and threw rocks at police in Stockholm’s Rinkeby district Monday night after one person was arrested, local police said. Police fired guns, but without hitting anyone.
When Trump made his comments on Sweden at a rally in Florida he also referenced Paris, Nice and Brussels — three European cities that have seen terror attacks in recent years. So, it caused some bewilderment when he added, “you look at what’s happening last night in Sweden. Sweden, who would believe this?”
Sweden hasn’t had any terrorist attacks since it took in a recent wave of asylum seekers. The most recent terror attack happened in 2010 when two bombs exploded in Stockholm, killing only the bomber, Taimour Abdulwahab al-Abdaly, an Iraqi-born Swede.
After Swedes reacted with humor and confusion to President Trump’s remarks, the president tried the following day to clarify what he meant. In a tweet on Sunday he said that he was referencing a Fox News report about “immigrants & Sweden.”
My statement as to what’s happening in Sweden was in reference to a story that was broadcast on @FoxNews concerning immigrants & Sweden.
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) February 19, 2017
In the Fox News report, host Tucker Carlson interviewed Ami Horowitz, who made a film about an alleged increase of crime associated with asylum seekers in Sweden. Horowitz has described himself as “right of center.”
“So, they have these — what they really become are no-go zones. These are areas that cops won’t even enter because they’re too dangerous for them,” Horowitz told Carlson.
Give the public a break – The FAKE NEWS media is trying to say that large scale immigration in Sweden is working out just beautifully. NOT!
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) February 20, 2017
Are those claims justified?
“It’s very judgmental,” Nicklas Lund, press officer at the Swedish National Council for Crime Prevention, told ABC News of the claims. The council is an agency within Sweden’s Ministry of Justice that conducts research on the judicial system.
Sweden has 15 suburbs with high crime rates, Lund said, but the recent influx of refugees doesn’t explain the problem. Rinkeby where violence broke out Monday night is one of these 15 areas.
“In 2015, a big number of refugees came to Sweden and these were problem areas before that,” he told ABC News.
In fact, the overall number of reported crimes in those 15 areas decreased in 2015. That year, 19,092 crimes were reported in total in all 15 areas — a decline from 19,576 in 2014. Back in 2012, the total number of reported crimes in these areas was over 20,200, according to data from the Swedish National Council for Crime Prevention. Numbers for 2016 are not yet available.
The council looks at factors such as income and education level in its research on why people commit crimes — not at whether they are refugees or not, Lund said.
Sweden, a country with a population of about 9.6 million, received nearly 163,000 asylum applications in 2015 — the highest number ever reported and more than double the number the year before, according to the Swedish Migration Agency. In 2016, 28,939 applied for asylum in Sweden, according to the agency.
The decrease in the number of asylum seekers is partially explained by changes in Swedish law, which made it more difficult to achieve family reunification and to obtain permanent residency. The refugee agreement between Turkey and the European Union also made it more difficult for asylum seekers to cross borders in Europe.
Sweden announced temporary border controls in 2015 and the country has extended the measures several times. Earlier this month, border controls in some places in Skåne and in Västra Götaland County were extended by three more months until May 10, the Swedish government said.
Carl Bildt, Sweden’s former prime minister and foreign minister, noted in a tweet on Monday that appeared to mock Trump’s tweeting style that the number of murders committed in Sweden nationwide last year was lower than the number of murders reported in Orlando/Orange County, Florida, near where Trump spoke Saturday.
Last year there were app 50% more murders only in Orlando/Orange in Florida, where Trump spoke the other day, than in all of Sweden. Bad.
— Carl Bildt (@carlbildt) February 20, 2017
Sweden has a low crime rate compared to the U.S., according to the U.S. State Department’s Bureau of Diplomatic Security, but on a national level, the country has seen some increase in violent crimes in recent years.
Last year, 112,645 violent crimes were reported in Sweden — an increase from 108,739 in 2015, 108,071 in 2014, and 104,738 in 2013, according to the Swedish National Council for Crime Prevention. These numbers include attempted murder, muggings and rape — but not other types of sexual assault and murder, the council said.
In 2015, the number of murders went up to 112 from 87 the previous year. The data for 2016 has not yet been completed, according to the council. But what these numbers don’t show is how many of the crimes were committed by asylum seekers. The statistics are based on police reports and these reports don’t mention the ethnicity of the perpetrator or whether the perpetrator is a Swedish citizen or a refugee, according to the council.
“The police reports don’t have a box you tick about whether it’s a Swedish citizen or an immigrant,” Lund told ABC News, noting that the council does a lot of research on why people commit crimes. The council looks at a number of social factors, including income and education — but not immigration status or ethnicity.
When asked to respond to President Trump’s remarks on Sweden during a press conference Monday in Stockholm, Swedish Prime Minister Stefan Löfven said that he was “surprised” by the comments and that Sweden faces “huge opportunities as well as challenges.“
“I think also we must all take responsibility for using facts correctly, and for verifying any information that we spread,” he said.
When asked by another reporter how Sweden would react to Trump’s continued criticism of Sweden’s immigration policy, Löfven responded: “It’s up to the president to decide what he wants to say.”
He listed several international economic and innovation indices on which Sweden ranks highly, before adding, “So, we have some very strong facts that show that Sweden is also handling the situation.”
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