Posted on March 8, 2017

Swedish War Correspondent Says Iraq Is Safer Than Stockholm Amid Rising Violence

Siobhan McFadyen, Express, March 8, 2017

And the award winning reporter has sparked controversy saying woman are safer on the streets of Iraq than they are in Sweden.

Magda Gad has been working from Mosul covering the continued threat from terrorism in the country which has been plagued by ISIS.

And she says that any given weekend in her native country is “much worse than any night in Iraq” as the Government continues to put its head in the sand over the fall out from European migrant crisis.

Responding to questions from the public Ms Gad said: “In cities unaffected by fighting, it’s very quiet and no one bothers you when you walk the streets.

“There’s no law on the Islamic veil in Iraq, and it’s safer for a lone woman to be outside than Stockholm”.

The journalist’s criticism comes after Sweden’s ruling liberal party Integration Minister was forced into an embarrassing U-turn after claiming the number of reported rapes in the country was falling.

Ylva Johansson told the BBC there was no link to crime and immigration and declared the level of rape in Sweden is “going down, and going down, and going down.”

She added: “The level of rapes is not actually high in Sweden”.

In fact there was a 13 per cent increase in reported sex crimes in Sweden in 2016.

And her misleading comments were promptly rounded upon by critics.

Moderate party’s labour policy spokesperson Elisabeth Svantesson accused the politician of peddling fake news.

She said: “We don’t need more fake news.

“In what way is the number of sex crimes decreasing?”

Following her claims on British TV Johansson was then forced into a U-turn.

She told Dagens Nyheter newspaper: “I based my answer on information that I had at the time, that the number of reports of rapes went down in 2015.

“It was wrong of me to speak of a development that was only based on one year. The preliminary figures for 2016 unfortunately show that the figures are on the rise. It’s important to be correct, of course.”

The Swedish National Council for Crime Prevention (Brå) stats, reported by Aftonbladet said assaults had shot up by 13 per cent in 2016.

Over the past decade there has been a rise in rapes from 4,208 in 2006 to 6,560 in 2016.