Identifier
Created
Classification
Origin
06STOCKHOLM54
2006-01-13 15:33:00
CONFIDENTIAL
Embassy Stockholm
Cable title:  

SWEDEN & DISAPPEARING CHINESE CHILDREN

Tags:  KCRM PHUM SMIG KFRD CVIS SW 
pdf how-to read a cable
VZCZCXRO1516
PP RUEHFL RUEHKW RUEHLA RUEHROV RUEHSR
DE RUEHSM #0054/01 0131533
ZNY CCCCC ZZH
P 131533Z JAN 06
FM AMEMBASSY STOCKHOLM
TO RUEHC/SECSTATE WASHDC PRIORITY 9622
INFO RUEHZL/EUROPEAN POLITICAL COLLECTIVE
RUEHBJ/AMEMBASSY BEIJING 0981
C O N F I D E N T I A L SECTION 01 OF 02 STOCKHOLM 000054 

SIPDIS

SIPDIS

DEPT FOR G/TIP
DEPT FOR INL/HSTC

E.O. 12958: DECL: 01/12/2016
TAGS: KCRM PHUM SMIG KFRD CVIS SW
SUBJECT: SWEDEN & DISAPPEARING CHINESE CHILDREN

Classified By: DCM Stephen V. Noble, reason 1.4 (B) & (D)

C O N F I D E N T I A L SECTION 01 OF 02 STOCKHOLM 000054

SIPDIS

SIPDIS

DEPT FOR G/TIP
DEPT FOR INL/HSTC

E.O. 12958: DECL: 01/12/2016
TAGS: KCRM PHUM SMIG KFRD CVIS SW
SUBJECT: SWEDEN & DISAPPEARING CHINESE CHILDREN

Classified By: DCM Stephen V. Noble, reason 1.4 (B) & (D)


1. (U) Summary. Since November 2004, 120 Chinese children
have disappeared from Swedish immigration centers. In all
cases the children arrived in Stockholm via air from Beijing
or Moscow, immediately asked for political asylum, and within
days disappeared while their cases were pending. Swedish
officials have yet to discover where the children end up, but
investigative leads indicate onward destinations including
Denmark, Germany, Italy, France and the Netherlands. Law
enforcement authorities here believe a network of individuals
in several European countries supports this traffic. A
disheartening mix of legal "protections," and apparent
inadequate international cooperation, enables this phenomenon
to continue. End Summary.

Arrival...Asylum...Disappearance
--------------


2. (U) On January 11 Poloff met with Hans Ihrman, Senior
State Prosecutor in Stockholm, who confirmed media reports of
the disappearance of 120 Chinese children who sought
political asylum in Sweden at various times over the past
eighteen months. Ihrman outlined the phenomenon, which he
believes is managed by organized traffickers. Since at least
November 2004 small groups of Chinese children have arrived
at Stockholm's Arlanda international airport. The children
(with estimated ages ranging from ten to eighteen) arrive
unaccompanied and commonly without travel documents. They
travel on flights either directly from Beijing (on Air
China),or Moscow (on Aeroflot).


3. (U) Virtually all the children arrive with cell phones
and small amounts of cash, said Ihrman. All request asylum,
and are consequently sent to immigration reception centers.
The children disappear shortly thereafter. (As the
individuals in question are minors and have committed no
crime, Sweden does not place them in confined centers.) The
children's asylum requests are all identical. When pressed,
they make vague references to having relatives persecuted for
links to the Phalun Gong religious movement; beyond that they

say nothing. Ihrman said the children appear to have been
"very professionally coached" in responding to interview
questions. He confirmed that so far 120 children have
disappeared in this manner. There are currently no such
children in Swedish immigration reception centers.

Trails Point South
--------------


4. (C) Ihrman expressed dismay that after more than one
year authorities here have yet to discover the ultimate
destinations of the children. He added that all current
evidence points to onward destinations including Denmark,
Germany, Italy, France and the Netherlands. Ihrman confirmed
press reports that in May, Dutch police detained six Chinese
children who had earlier disappeared from Swedish immigration
centers. Ihrman told us that Swedish police only recently
learned from the Dutch police that the children had been
found traveling together on a train between Rotterdam and
Amsterdam, presumably during some type of routine control.
He characterized cooperation with Dutch police as "not so
good." Ihrman said the six children subsequently disappeared
before Dutch authorities returned them to Sweden, as would
normally occur under the Dublin Convention for determining EU
states responsible for examining asylum applications.


5. (C) The Swedish Prosecutor recounted a summer 2005
effort by police to follow a group of children who left a
Stockholm reception center. Police observed the children
receive instructions on their mobile telephones, after which
they purchased bus tickets to Copenhagen. (Note. Swedish
law prevents wiretapping in such cases; it also prevents
authorities from restricting the children's movements. End
Note.) Danish police picked up surveillance of the children
at the border (Ostersund Bridge). From Denmark, the children
boarded another bus to Germany. According to Ihrman, legal
restrictions on surveillance in Germany prevented police from
following the trail. Danish police literally had to watch
the bus drive away at the border, said Ihrman. The children
have not been seen since.

November Arrests Provide No Leads
--------------


6. (C) Swedish authorities, made their initial, and so far
only, arrests in the case this past November. Acting on in
collaboration with their Norwegian counterparts, Swedish
police followed four Chinese children from the Norwegian

STOCKHOLM 00000054 002 OF 002


border to Stockholm, where they were met by two adults, both
Chinese nationals legally resident in Sweden, who run a sushi
restaurant two blocks from the National Police Headquarters.
After overnighting in the restaurant, the children traveled
to an apartment in a Stockholm suburb, where police arrested
the two adults and detained the children. (Note. The
children reportedly originally arrived in Norway under
circumstances similar those described in this cable. End
Summary.)


7. (C) In the apartment police found several high-quality
forged Japanese passports, and cash amounting to several
hundred thousand Swedish kronor (equivalent of several
thousand U.S. dollars). Ihrman told Poloff the arrested
adults have refused to provide any information; they remain
in detention, charged with immigration violations. The
children have been returned to Norway. Ihrman, who had
recently interviewed the children, said it appeared several
individuals were involved in helping arrange their travel.
While in Norway the children made telephone calls to numbers
in France and Italy. Norwegian wiretaps of these
conversations indicated France and Italy were the children's
onward (though not necessarily final) destinations.

Raising the Issue in Beijing
--------------


8. (C) Swedish diplomats in Beijing have raised this issue
with Chinese authorities, who have expressed their
willingness to cooperate. The Chinese have assured the
Swedes that it would be impossible for a child to leave China
on an international flight unaccompanied by an adult. They
have additionally conducted more careful checks on direct
flights from Beijing to Stockholm. Ihrman posits that adults
involved exit the flights independently in Stockholm or
Moscow, and/or that the children board in China using false
documents which they destroy en route. Last summer
authorities delayed an Air China flight in Stockholm long
enough to search the aircraft, but found nothing. Ihrman
said Sweden may ask Chinese authorities to check on telephone
numbers in China to which suspect children have telephoned,
as well as several Chinese bank account numbers they believe
may be involved in suspect financial transactions, albeit
ones not necessarily linked with the trafficking issue.

Comment
--------------


9. (U) While we admit we have only a superficial grasp of
this situation, we are nonetheless incredulous about the
narrow interpretation of laws and implementation of strict
rights of privacy that paradoxically result in a basic loss
of human rights of these minors. We report this to our
neighboring posts in the hope they may have some
complimentary information. While the European nations
mentioned all are strong advocates of trafficking in persons
conventions, it seems something critical is lacking on the
ground when this trafficking actually takes place. Embassy
Stockholm will continue to report on this phenomenon as
information comes to our attention.

NOBLE