Refugee kids denied free lunch by Swedish school
Published: 2 Nov 12 08:38 CET | Print version
Online: http://www.thelocal.se/44188/20121102/
Some 200 children of asylum seekers on the Baltic island of Öland are not being given a free school lunch, as local authorities think the families are already getting a food grant from the state.
- Sweden to get 50,000 asylum seekers in 2013 (29 Oct 12)
- Refugees often left to find their own housing (10 Oct 12)
- Syrians largest asylum seeker group in Sweden (6 Oct 12)
The county council nurse, Elisabeth Olsson, in charge of health care for Kalmar refugees and asylum seekers, brought up the issue.
“I can’t understand why they shouldn’t have the same rights as the other children. If any children need free lunches in school, it's these,” said Olsson to DN.
While carrying out health checks in a temporary school set up for the children of asylum seekers housed on a north Öland camping site, she discovered that the children attending the school were not served a free school meal.
The makeshift school, housed in barracks on the site, currently has some 200 students, according to DN. The camping site is the temporary home of several hundred of asylum-seeking families, with the majority hailing from Syria.
At the moment, the children bring their own lunch, which Bylund told DN he thinks is a better solution for these kids than being sent traditional Swedish food from some municipal catering department.
However, according to Swedish school laws, all Swedish schoolchildren should be offered a “nutritional school meal”.
It is still unclear whether this should include children of asylum seekers to Sweden, according to Stina Sterner of the Swedish Schools Inspectorate (Skolinspektionen), which has demanded an explanation from the local authorities and is looking into the matter.
“We have started an investigation and we haven’t really reached an answer to that yet,” she told DN.
What do you think? Leave your comment below.
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As for the logic of double-dipping, every single one of the Swedish kid's parents get a state child subsidy. Sweden is so tribal that it can see how it morphs into blatant racist behavior.
If one offers food to one child in the presence of other children, the civilized thing to do is offer food to all of the children.
Sweden, are you STILL a nation of classless peasants?
There just doesn't seem to be enough: free lawyers, free houses, free jobs, free healthcare, free unemploment benefit, free education, and now, free school dinners for all of them.
The problem is so severe, people are vandalising the immigration offices that seem to have been simply overwhelmed by more refugees than they can handle.
The solution is either to significantly raise what are already the world's highest taxes to pay for all this free stuff, or to significantly reduce the flow of refugees to a level where there are enough free resources to properly accomodate them all to the standard they deserve.
As Sweden is to absorb an additional 50 000 next year, I suspect a tax rise might be on the way soon.
No, it's not like that, these newly arrived kids go to school at a temporary school set up just for the children of asylum seekers at a camping site where they live. There are only children of asylum seekers at this temporary school. There are no school kitchens or cafeterias in these barracks presume, only classrooms so it's a little bit complicated to serve hot food there. Especialy if the kids has a lot of diet restrictions, that some don't eat meat or some kind of meats while some do.
What on earth are you talking about? Matpakke is not a Swedish word and Swedish kids DO NOT bring packed lunches to school everyone gets a free lunch- even the kids of millionaires get free school lunches??
Mr Bylund is protecting the state from waste, which seems a noble thing to me.
If only there were a few more people like him about in public service. Then perhaps the vast quantities of public money that is currently wasted on extravagant SÄPO James Bond parties and the like, might be better spent, or even saved.
If anything this shows that Sweden can`t take care of all asylum seekers coming here. It is runing out of room and resources. But it doesn`t make Sweden racist or a nation of peasants like some are screaming on about.
THERE IS not enough money in the budget to accomodate these people. Period. Looking at the packages that asylum seekers receive, given their unemployment rate and their female situation, it is clearer and clearer that the free stuff that is floating in the economy starts to strain it.
In addition, the way it is put: "Refugee kids denied free lunch" is extremely leading. One could say: "Darkskinned refugees are denied free cars", "Black female invalid refugees are denied free iPads".
The food is ALREADY PAID for. If one wants to have the food provided in schools, one has to take the subsidy for the parents. However I can already see the Local journalism: "Refugees are denied food funds". With the help of public opinion they squeeze out more money that has been allocated. This is very destructive for the economy in the sense of budget reliability, rather than the actual amounts.
Thanks for clarifying.
If Europe doesn't have the resources who has ?
@ Emerentia - research shows that the food cost of a school lunch is between 5 and 10kr/day. Most schools even in tiny kommuns manage toabide by the recommendations to produce a choice of meals, plus soup, plus a vegetable buffé plus bread so most children have no trouble finding something to eat.
Guess who is paying.
Free school lunches should be abolished. Parents should feed their kids, not the taxpayer.
Your arguement that as one group of people defrauds the state, that makes it OK for another group of people to do the same, is immoral.
http://www.skolmatensvanner.se/prm100630.php
@ Puffin, parents who get benefits (socialbidrag or försörjningsstöd in Swedish) don't get any money to cover the cost of lunch for kids, who go to school and get lunch there.
http://www.socialstyrelsen.se/ekonomisktbistand/forsorjningsstod/riksnormen
For example you may be assuming Sweden, with its lesser population than the cities of London or NY, simply does not have the ways and means of feeding them all. Or you may be assuming Sweden actually is having very big difficulties in finding a roof over every refugee's head; finding enough of apartment buildings is at an end and soon there won't even be enough of the castles and mansions for them...
http://avpixlat.info/2012/09/17/lyxigt-herrgardsboende-for-200-flyktingar-kostar-380-000-skattekronor-per-dygn/
http://avpixlat.info/2012/11/01/ytterligare-en-slottsliknande-herrgard-blir-asylboende/
If assuming any of the above, the thread will be deleted.
It should be very simple: Either all the children get free lunch, or none. If the refugee kids have already a subsidy from the government. the Swedish children should also have it. Then, the government would stick to the motto of everybody is equal in Sweden. It looks like someone is trying to take advantage of the State, and that someone is certainly not the bunch of Swedish kids enjoying their free lunch.
This is an issue that once again shows that Sweden has no business taking in foreigners if they have no clear plan, or means to take care of them and treating them like human beings.
They can bring bagged lunch?
Really? I worked in a school here in Sweden where it was absoultely forbidden for the kids to bring bagged lunch....go figure, kids who didn't like the food or had special circumstances were not even allowed to bring lunch but here they are forcing it?
Nice vad?
Feed the kids, reduce the handout to the parents accordingly...
Of course, close the gates to and these "problems" go away.
Yes, close the gates. No one is thanking the Swedish workers/taxpayers anyway. Instead the taxpayers are being called racists and "svenne hora" and such.
Close the gates!