Trump faced mockery – but tensions are real

JUST over six weeks ago, Donald Trump was mocked across the world for suggesting that Sweden had been the victim of a terror atrocity.

The American president linked high levels of immigration with the attack – which turned out to be fictitious – and rising levels of crime in the country, later saying he had based the comments on a Fox News report.

He was ridiculed, with Carl Bildt, the former Swedish prime minister, asking: “What has he been smoking?” The country’s US embassy appeared to mock him on Twitter.

But the attack outside a Stockholm department store yesterday has shown that tensions in Sweden are reaching breaking point.

It is not the first time the capital has been hit by terror. In 2010 it became the first Nordic country to be subjected to an attack linked to Islamist extremism but the two bombs in the capital killed only the bomber, Iraqi-born Taimour Abdulwahab al-Abdaly, who was radicalised in Luton.

After that, a plot inspired by Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (Isil) to make pressure bombs was disrupted by police, and last year, a teaching assistant and a boy in a school in an immigrant area were killed in a racially motivated sword attack.

Integration has remained a problem in the country, where relatively high numbers of immigrants in a population of just under 10 million means it has one of the highest rates in Europe.

The numbers have been rising steadily since the Nineties, and in 2015 Sweden accepted a record number of more than 160,000 refugees.

Violent crime has decreased from a peak in 2011, but the number of killings has risen, with a record 112 cases of lethal violence in 2015, and 33 shot dead compared with 17 in 2011.

The government has confirmed that “the number of reported rapes in Sweden has risen”, but says this is largely due to changes in the way it is reported.

In February last year, police identified 53 residential areas around the country that have become “increasingly marred by crime, social unrest and insecurity”.

While the government denies that these are “no-go zones”, in denying Mr Trump’s claims it admitted that police “have experienced difficulties fulfilling their duties”.

But officials say one of the biggest problems is not rising crime but the perception of rising crime, with immigrants bearing the brunt of the blame.

Studies by the Swedish National Council for Crime Prevention have found most of those suspected of crimes were born in Sweden to two Swedish-born parents, but people from foreign backgrounds are 2.5 times more likely to be suspected of crimes.

The country also has some of the biggest differences in Europe in employment rates and poverty levels between the native-born population and those born abroad.

Recent surveys rated immigration as the biggest concern for residents, and tougher immigration measures introduced in 2016 have cut the number of asylum seekers in what was seen as Europe’s most welcoming country.

Despite the difficulties, the government maintains that low birth rates mean that the country needs immigrants, as it points out that Sweden still has a strong economy and a public finance surplus.