Refugee children in Sweden are falling into coma-like states on learning their families will be deported

According to Sweden the so called “Resignation Syndrome” (uppgivenhetssyndrom in Swedish) was diagnosed with 60 children this year.

Photo: Police stand with refugee children in Sweden.

For years, Sweden has been reporting a peculiar and unique phenomenon called “Resignation Syndrome”.

The authorities are doing their best in attempting to solve this problem which appears to be unique to Swedish child refugees.

It was described by some doctors as “willed dying” and often occurred after families were denied asylum status and thrown into uncertainty. 

A similar phenomenon was observed in Nazi concentration camps, the New Yorker reported, in prisoners who had effectively lost all hope
and given up. 

The “Resignation Syndrome” has been seen as the manifestation of fear, say the doctors. The fear of being returned to their old countries, where they could be unsafe, and also of adjusting to a new society after having become used to Sweden. 

Many of those diagnosed with this syndrome are not victims of the current crisis, but from former Soviet states. Also, many are from the minority groups, such as Romanian gypsies.

Among those who suffer from the syndrome is a young boy called Georgi, who came from Nost Ossetia, Russia. He told the New Yorker magazine that during the months he spent in bed, he had felt as if he were in a glass box with fragile walls, deep in the ocean.

Moving or speaking would cause the glass to shatter and the “water would pour in and kill me” he said.

The only known “cure” for this condition is for the refugee families to be awarded residency permits. Something that was recognized even by the Swedish Board of Health and Wellfare.

To see improvements in the children’s condition takes usually several months after a family has been grated leave to remain.

However, this does not guarantee families of children with the “Resignation Syndrome” will be allowed to stay, especially since Sweden has tightened it’s rules on refugees during the recent years.

Reports exist of deported children still in comatose-like states, several months after they have been returned to their family’s country of origin.

The idea that the condition can be treated by awarding families a residency permit has also been questioned, as critics say it prevents a proper medical approach.