A Palestinian grandmother of four girls and a boy who “have been taken away from their family” by Swedish authorities, said her grandchildren are being subjected to “persecution, ill-treatment, repression, and sexual harassment by their host families in Sweden”.

Palestinian refugee Alyaa Darwish said the Swedish Social Services Administration took away her grandchildren some four years ago and without prior notice on claims of family problems and neglect, which has been denied by Alyaa. She confirmed that her grandchildren had an ordinary and stable life with their families.

The grandmother said the family’s appeals to the social services authority to allow the children to bid last farewell to their grandfather had gone unheeded. The family has not seen their youngest child for four years.

According to Alyaa, her grandchildren attempted several times to flee their host families due to mistreatment, before they were caught by policemen who broke into their grandmother’s house and returned them back to the host families by force.

Alyaa also appealed to the Swedish authorities to launch special courses in order to update migrant families and asylum seekers about childhood-related laws and regulations.