Asylum-seeker surrenders and releases hostage son
A rejected asylum seeker surrendered today after holding his own son hostage for 24 hours at a hospital in southern Sweden, officials said.
The man, in his 40s, apparently had not been armed but indicated he had flammable fluid with him in the room where he barricaded himself with his 15-year-old son yesterday, police spokesman Tomas Parlklo said. The boy was unharmed.
The father, who was not identified, was protesting the planned deportation of his family, including three children. A few hours after having released his son, the man surrendered to police and was arrested on suspicion of kidnapping.
Parlklo said officers who negotiated with the hostage taker managed to persuade him to surrender by keeping him awake as much as possible. “These tactics worked very well,” he added.
Plans to deport the family from Sweden today were postponed.
The son was reported to be suffering from a common affliction in children of asylum-seeking families in Sweden when they become severely withdrawn and sometimes need to be tube-fed.
The issue has sparked an outcry over the asylum process in this Nordic country with a liberal refugee policy.
According to a report, refugee children – mostly from the Balkans and former Soviet republics – often slip into a deep state of apathy when they stop eating, talking and moving.
Swedish Migration Minister Barbro Holmberg has demanded health authorities investigate the cause of the illness that has affected more than 400 children since 2003.
