Today in Sweden: A roundup of the latest news on Friday
Sami remains returned, Ukrainian university exams in Stockholm and star surgeon found guilty. Here's Sweden's news on Friday.
Sami remains to be returned
According to the Swedish education ministry, Uppsala University will return human remains - a male skeleton - to Arjeplog's Sami community.
The government decision comes from a request from the university, as the Arjeplog Sami community have requested repatriation of the remains. The skeleton is currently stored at the Gustavianum university museum.
The university has previously stated that the person in question served a life sentence at a prison in Stockholm and was registered at a church in Arjeplog.
"In the past, it wasn't unusual for the bodies of people who died in prison to be handed over to the university's medical education and research institutes," Uppsala University wrote in a press statement in November last year.
Earlier this year, remains were repatriated in a similar way from Lund University.
The largest repatriation of Sami remains in Sweden was carried out in August 2019, where remains from 25 individuals were returned to Gammplatsen, an old church and market area in Lycksele, southern Lappland. They were returned from Västerbotten Museum, who in turn had been given the remains from the Swedish History Museum in Stockholm.
Swedish vocabulary: kvarlevor - remains
Ukrainians will be able to take university entrance exams in Sweden
Ukrainian refugees in Sweden will be able to take entrance exams for courses in their home country in Stockholm.
In order to be admitted to a Ukrainian university, applicants must pass an entrance exam. But due to Russia's invasion of Ukraine, the application system has been disrupted.
The Ukrainian education department have therefore asked other countries, including Sweden, to help carry out the exams. Stockholm's University have now been given the task of assisting with the tests.
"The situation which has arisen following Russia's war has caused an enormous amount of human suffering," Sweden's education minister Anna Ekström said in a press statement.
"I am pleased that we can support Ukraine by making it possible for Ukrainians who have fled to Sweden to take part in the tests, so that they can apply to Ukrainian university courses. It is of great importance for rebuilding the country."
Stockholm University will provide exam rooms and invigilators, carry out the necessary ID checks and communicate results.
Swedish vocabulary: högskoleprov - university exams
Swedish court finds Italian star surgeon guilty of "causing bodily harm"
A court in Sweden has found the scandal-hit Italian surgeon Paolo Macchiarini guilty of a serious crime causing bodily harm for one of three experimental operations implanting synthetic windpipes in patients.
The court ruled that the operation was not justified on the basis of established medical science or experience.
“The benefits which could be expected from the treatment were quite simply not proportional to the risks which came with the operation,” the judges in the case, Ewa Lindbäck and Björn Skånsberg, said in a statement.
The court freed Macchiarini in two other cases, ruling that the operations had been defensible as a last resort, due to the perilous state of the patients’ health.
It also ruled that he was not guilty of carrying out an intentional assault, but was rather guilty of causing harm through negligence.
Swedish vocabulary: plaststrupar - plastic windpipes
Turkey demands written response from Sweden on Nato bid
Turkey said on Wednesday that it was waiting for a "written response" from Sweden and Finland to Ankara's objections to their Nato bids.
“We have transmitted our questions in writing to these two countries,” Turkey Foreign Minister Mevlut Cavusoglu told reporters. “Now we’re waiting for their written responses,” he said.
The two Nordic countries reversed decades of military non-alignment by applying for Nato memberships in May, following Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.
Any Nato membership deal must, however, be unanimously approved by all 30 members of the alliance, and Turkey has thrown a spanner in the works and blocked their bids.
Ankara is accusing the Nordic neighbours of providing a safe haven for the outlawed Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK), listed as a “terrorist” group by Turkey and its Western allies.
Turkey President Recep Tayyip Erdogan told members of his party on Wednesday that “as long as Sweden and Finland don’t adopt concrete measures on the fight against terrorism, our position will not change.”
Swedish vocabulary: ett skriftligt svar - a written response
Swedish Iranians complain of 'drastic drop' in visas for relatives
Iranians living in Sweden are complaining that relatives are no longer being granted visas to visit, causing pain and heartbreak for one of Sweden's most established immigrant communities.
"This has affected our community very greatly," Kamran Chabokdavan, spokesperson for the Swedish-Iranian interest group, or Intresseföreningen för Svensk-Iranska frågor, told The Local. "There's so many people who are feeling depressed or mistreated."
He had planned to marry his Swedish partner in 2019, but has still not been able to as his parents have not been able to get a visa to come to Sweden, despite visiting, and returning back to Iran several times before.
"If it was the first time that my parents came here, then it would be more reasonable to say that we cannot be sure that you will go back," Chabokdavan, who works as a vet in Gothenburg, said. "But if the person has been here ten times before, and suddenly you decide to reject the application, that is a little bit odd."
The group now has 2,000 members on Facebook and has contacted the embassy in Tehran, Sweden's foreign ministry, and MPs in two of Sweden's political parties, who Chabokdavan said had promised to raise the issue in their parties and to the government.
In a letter to the embassy in Tehran the group complained that there was no mechanism to replace documents rejected by the Swedish authorities, or to send in missing documents. The group also called for clarity on how applicants' economic situation was assessed and how relevant it was, and called for the embassy to publish its official statistics from 2015 to 2022.
"This is about parents who have lived for 60 to 70 years in their homeland and visited Sweden several times while always leaving the Schengen region before their visa has expired," they wrote.
Swedish vocabulary: visumansökan - visa application
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Sami remains to be returned
According to the Swedish education ministry, Uppsala University will return human remains - a male skeleton - to Arjeplog's Sami community.
The government decision comes from a request from the university, as the Arjeplog Sami community have requested repatriation of the remains. The skeleton is currently stored at the Gustavianum university museum.
The university has previously stated that the person in question served a life sentence at a prison in Stockholm and was registered at a church in Arjeplog.
"In the past, it wasn't unusual for the bodies of people who died in prison to be handed over to the university's medical education and research institutes," Uppsala University wrote in a press statement in November last year.
Earlier this year, remains were repatriated in a similar way from Lund University.
The largest repatriation of Sami remains in Sweden was carried out in August 2019, where remains from 25 individuals were returned to Gammplatsen, an old church and market area in Lycksele, southern Lappland. They were returned from Västerbotten Museum, who in turn had been given the remains from the Swedish History Museum in Stockholm.
Swedish vocabulary: kvarlevor - remains
Ukrainians will be able to take university entrance exams in Sweden
Ukrainian refugees in Sweden will be able to take entrance exams for courses in their home country in Stockholm.
In order to be admitted to a Ukrainian university, applicants must pass an entrance exam. But due to Russia's invasion of Ukraine, the application system has been disrupted.
The Ukrainian education department have therefore asked other countries, including Sweden, to help carry out the exams. Stockholm's University have now been given the task of assisting with the tests.
"The situation which has arisen following Russia's war has caused an enormous amount of human suffering," Sweden's education minister Anna Ekström said in a press statement.
"I am pleased that we can support Ukraine by making it possible for Ukrainians who have fled to Sweden to take part in the tests, so that they can apply to Ukrainian university courses. It is of great importance for rebuilding the country."
Stockholm University will provide exam rooms and invigilators, carry out the necessary ID checks and communicate results.
Swedish vocabulary: högskoleprov - university exams
Swedish court finds Italian star surgeon guilty of "causing bodily harm"
A court in Sweden has found the scandal-hit Italian surgeon Paolo Macchiarini guilty of a serious crime causing bodily harm for one of three experimental operations implanting synthetic windpipes in patients.
The court ruled that the operation was not justified on the basis of established medical science or experience.
“The benefits which could be expected from the treatment were quite simply not proportional to the risks which came with the operation,” the judges in the case, Ewa Lindbäck and Björn Skånsberg, said in a statement.
The court freed Macchiarini in two other cases, ruling that the operations had been defensible as a last resort, due to the perilous state of the patients’ health.
It also ruled that he was not guilty of carrying out an intentional assault, but was rather guilty of causing harm through negligence.
Swedish vocabulary: plaststrupar - plastic windpipes
Turkey demands written response from Sweden on Nato bid
Turkey said on Wednesday that it was waiting for a "written response" from Sweden and Finland to Ankara's objections to their Nato bids.
“We have transmitted our questions in writing to these two countries,” Turkey Foreign Minister Mevlut Cavusoglu told reporters. “Now we’re waiting for their written responses,” he said.
The two Nordic countries reversed decades of military non-alignment by applying for Nato memberships in May, following Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.
Any Nato membership deal must, however, be unanimously approved by all 30 members of the alliance, and Turkey has thrown a spanner in the works and blocked their bids.
Ankara is accusing the Nordic neighbours of providing a safe haven for the outlawed Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK), listed as a “terrorist” group by Turkey and its Western allies.
Turkey President Recep Tayyip Erdogan told members of his party on Wednesday that “as long as Sweden and Finland don’t adopt concrete measures on the fight against terrorism, our position will not change.”
Swedish vocabulary: ett skriftligt svar - a written response
Swedish Iranians complain of 'drastic drop' in visas for relatives
Iranians living in Sweden are complaining that relatives are no longer being granted visas to visit, causing pain and heartbreak for one of Sweden's most established immigrant communities.
"This has affected our community very greatly," Kamran Chabokdavan, spokesperson for the Swedish-Iranian interest group, or Intresseföreningen för Svensk-Iranska frågor, told The Local. "There's so many people who are feeling depressed or mistreated."
He had planned to marry his Swedish partner in 2019, but has still not been able to as his parents have not been able to get a visa to come to Sweden, despite visiting, and returning back to Iran several times before.
"If it was the first time that my parents came here, then it would be more reasonable to say that we cannot be sure that you will go back," Chabokdavan, who works as a vet in Gothenburg, said. "But if the person has been here ten times before, and suddenly you decide to reject the application, that is a little bit odd."
The group now has 2,000 members on Facebook and has contacted the embassy in Tehran, Sweden's foreign ministry, and MPs in two of Sweden's political parties, who Chabokdavan said had promised to raise the issue in their parties and to the government.
In a letter to the embassy in Tehran the group complained that there was no mechanism to replace documents rejected by the Swedish authorities, or to send in missing documents. The group also called for clarity on how applicants' economic situation was assessed and how relevant it was, and called for the embassy to publish its official statistics from 2015 to 2022.
"This is about parents who have lived for 60 to 70 years in their homeland and visited Sweden several times while always leaving the Schengen region before their visa has expired," they wrote.
Swedish vocabulary: visumansökan - visa application
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