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| West Africans' effort to reach Europe: For 165 Senegalese, the journey of a lifetime ended in a fluorescent-lit, green-carpeted barn at the edge of Dakar’s international airport. Dressed uniformly in new white sneakers and hoodies reading “RISING” in large letters, they perched on plastic chairs and ate their first meal back on home soil out of foil containers. They had just returned from Tripoli, in Libya, on a flight put on by the International Organisation for Migration, a UN body. Of the 165, all but one were men, and all were young. They had been trying to get onto boats bound for Europe. Instead they had spent months - over a year for some - living on starvation rations in Libyan prisons. Read the rest... |
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The routes many West Africans take to reach Europe |
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| There are 150,000 circumcised women in Sweden: The number of circumcised women in Sweden has increased tremendously and is probably two times what has been thought of before. A new study reveals that there are at least 150,000 women in Sweden who have undergone the procedure. Socialstyren estimated the number of circumcised women in Sweden at 38,000 in 2015. The new study shows that as grossly understated. The study also shows that Sweden is one of the countries that has the greatest number of immigrants from the countries that practise circumcision - countries like Somalia and Ethiopia. Some of the girls were cut so early in life that they have no memory of it. And the practice continues even with children who are in Sweden. The custom is so deeply embeded in certain parents that they take their little girls to their home countries to have it done even though this is against Swedish. |
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| Immigration is changing the Swedish welfare state: Sweden has long been admired for its blend of prosperity and social cohesion. Its model combines high taxes, generous welfare, collective bargaining, high educational standards and a reasonably free-market economy. The result is high living standards: the lowest wages, for example in hotels or restaurants, are far higher than minimum wages elsewhere in Europe. Relative to other countries that have comparable data, Swedish men in manufacturing earn the highest minimum wage. But the influx of hundreds of thousands of refugees from Syria, Afghanistan and elsewhere in 2015 has put huge extra pressure on the system. The Social Democrat led coalition government is now making tweaks to the system. Read the rest... |
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The influx of refugees is putting huge pressures on the Swedish welfare system |
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| Ransford Carboo tells his story to Ghanaians in Stockholm: He left the shores of Ghana in 1957, taking a third class berth on a boat from the beach in James Town, Accra. It was headed for Marseilles from where he made his way to Hammersmith in London. He had arrived in the U.K. on a CMB scholarship from a newly independent Ghana to study to become a Building Engineer. This marked the beginning of one Ghanaian's long stay in Europe and an interesting life that still continues today. Ransford Carboo ("Randy" as he is popularly known) regaled his enthralled audience at Medborgaplatsen with interesting stories from the Gold Coast days and life in Europe in the late 50s and 60s. Read all about Randy's life and see pictures from the occasion... |
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Ransford Carboo explains a point of interest to his keen listeners
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