Community torn apart as arrival of migrants prompts running battles in streets

http://www.express.co.uk/news/world/622126/Europe-migrant-crisis-refugees-Sweden-tensions

A SMALL Swedish village has descended into open warfare after furious locals clashed with migrants in a chilling warning of the dangers associated with mass migration.

By Nick Gutteridge

PUBLISHED: 04:22, Thu, Nov 26, 2015 | UPDATED: 08:49, Thu, Nov 26, 2015

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REUTERS/GOOGLE

Tensions betwen villagers and migrants have reached boiling point in Sweden

Outraged protestors threatened children and hurled stones at sheltered housing in apparent retaliation for vandalism and burglaries carried out by newly arrived refugees.

The growing chaos engulfing the once tranquil village of Tärnsjö has got so bad that the children of migrants now need a police escort just to get to school.

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It is a snapshot of potential tensions between locals and large numbers of new arrivals boil over, coming as thousands of Syrian refugees begin to arrive in Britain.

Villagers have expressed outrage that migrants get instant access to state benefits and housing whilst many families struggle to get by paying exorbitant rates of tax.

REUTERS

Sweden is accepting 10,000 refugees a week

REUTERS

There have been reports of tense stand-offs between migrants and locals

Meanwhile aid workers helping the refugees say they have been terrified by racist attacks which have left them too scared to leave their homes.

Councillor Michael Ohman said the problems have arisen because the 1,200 locals in Tärnsjö, 90 miles north of the capital Stockholm, never wanted the refugees to move in.

He said: "Racial tension has divided the village into two groups - those who support the immigrants and those who want them gone.

"There has been fighting between immigrants and the people living here.

"The village integration works badly because people don't want immigrants in the village. This is no longer a happy community, it's divided and is not a pleasant place to live."

REUTERS

Villagers are angry that migrants get automatic access to benefits

REUTERS

Europe is facing an unprecedented migrant crisis

There has been fighting between immigrants and the people living here

Councillor Michael Ohman

Sweden is at the heart of Europe's migrant crisis, with 10,000 asylum seekers arriving in the sparsely populated Scandinavian country every week.

It has already reintroduced border controls to stem the flow, whilst the anti-immigrant Sweden Democrats have made significant gains in recent opinion polls.

In Tärnsjö outraged locals say the problems began when 20 refugee families arrive and were linked to a crime wave in the village, including throwing stones at residents' cars.

Hate mobs organised on social media convened and struck back, attacking a block of flats which has been turned into a makeshift migrant centre. 

GOOGLE

This block of flats, where the refugees are being housed, has been attacked

Some villagers now fear a more serious racially motivated incident could occur, such as an attack on migrant children at the local school.

Last month 21-year-old Anton Lundin Pettersson walked into a school in the Swedish city of Gothenburg wearing a helmet and a Star Wars mask and used a sword to kill two migrant students.

Villager Tobias Willhall said: "The immigrants have caused all kinds of trouble for us. I have friends whose storage spaces have been burgled by immigrants and bicycles have been stolen.

"There is a really bad tension in the village because of the refugees."

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