SVANGSTA, Sweden (Reuters) – Mustafa Ansari’s journey ended one April morning in his bedroom in a quiet Swedish village. At around 7 a.m., staff at the young asylum-seekers’ center where Ansari was staying found him dead. 

…An autopsy found Ansari, who had no papers but was described in the autopsy as 17, had committed suicide. During nine months in Sweden, the authorities had not managed to carry out a single interview for his asylum application.

The young Afghan was a new kind of casualty in Europe’s migration crisis. While thousands have died on the journey to Europe, Ansari made it, only to become caught up in an overloaded system. His story highlights the limits on capacity even in a country like Sweden, which has one of the most open policies towards migrants and refugees. It also underlines the anxieties and risks faced by the more than 100,000 unaccompanied young asylum-seekers who have reached Europe since 2015.

…Processing times for asylum-seekers in the country have nearly tripled over five years to a median of longer than nine months, from just over three months in 2011. Care-workers have lost track of more than 1,000 unaccompanied minors, a third of whom are Afghan males, since 2014.

…Asylum-seekers are generally more likely to attempt suicide than the general population, studies have shown. They suffer high rates of depression, psychosis and other mental health conditions, largely because of the trauma they have fled. In Sweden, government and other groups have estimated that around a quarter of asylum-seekers suffer from mental illnesses like depression and post-traumatic stress disorder.

Ansari had traveled alone. His autopsy report says he was suffering from depression and bipolar disorder. Friends say he desperately missed his family. He waited months for a meeting to process his claim, but the agency canceled one meeting and messed up the venue for the other. “He used to speak about his frustration,” said his fellow asylum-seeker, 18-year-old Afghan Mohsen Naghawi. “He saw himself as unlucky.”

…Like many Afghans, Ansari planned to bring over his family from Iran once he had won asylum.

…”You have to remember that it is a very big responsibility for these boys,” said Ansari’s 18-year old friend, Naghawi. “Their families have sold everything and this is on their shoulders.”

That sense of responsibility intensifies the moment the boys touch Swedish soil.

…As winter approached and the days darkened, extremist attackers in Paris were found to have entered Europe with refugees traveling through Greece. This was a provincial, conservative part of Sweden. Some of Ansari’s friends said they feared the Swedish authorities might be delaying their applications as a tactic to make it easier to deport them.

As spring neared, according to the migrant center staffer Kullberg, Ansari started to adopt European ways. He was accepting handshakes, even hugs, from female staff.

But he had yet to meet anyone from the Migration Agency.

He began to spend hours in his room. His smile disappeared, he stopped going to school and he lost weight, his friends said.

Afghan boy’s hope of new life in Europe ends in suicide

sigh…

Human beings suck!