VZCZCXRO1516
PP RUEHFL RUEHKW RUEHLA RUEHROV RUEHSR
DE RUEHSM #0054/01 0131533
ZNY CCCCC ZZH
P 131533Z JAN 06
FM AMEMBASSY STOCKHOLM
TO RUEHC/SECSTATE WASHDC PRIORITY 9622
INFO RUEHZL/EUROPEAN POLITICAL COLLECTIVE
RUEHBJ/AMEMBASSY BEIJING 0981

C O N F I D E N T I A L SECTION 01 OF 02 STOCKHOLM 000054 
 
SIPDIS 
 
SIPDIS 
 
DEPT FOR G/TIP 
DEPT FOR INL/HSTC 
 
E.O. 12958: DECL: 01/12/2016 
TAGS: KCRM PHUM SMIG KFRD CVIS SW
SUBJECT: SWEDEN & DISAPPEARING CHINESE CHILDREN 
 
Classified By: DCM Stephen V. Noble, reason 1.4 (B) & (D) 
 
¶1.  (U)  Summary.  Since November 2004, 120 Chinese children 
have disappeared from Swedish immigration centers.  In all 
cases the children arrived in Stockholm via air from Beijing 
or Moscow, immediately asked for political asylum, and within 
days disappeared while their cases were pending.  Swedish 
officials have yet to discover where the children end up, but 
investigative leads indicate onward destinations including 
Denmark, Germany, Italy, France and the Netherlands.  Law 
enforcement authorities here believe a network of individuals 
in several European countries supports this traffic.  A 
disheartening mix of legal "protections," and apparent 
inadequate international cooperation, enables this phenomenon 
to continue.  End Summary. 
 
Arrival...Asylum...Disappearance 
-------------------------------- 
 
¶2.  (U)  On January 11 Poloff met with Hans Ihrman, Senior 
State Prosecutor in Stockholm, who confirmed media reports of 
the disappearance of 120 Chinese children who sought 
political asylum in Sweden at various times over the past 
eighteen months.  Ihrman outlined the phenomenon, which he 
believes is managed by organized traffickers.  Since at least 
November 2004 small groups of Chinese children have arrived 
at Stockholm's Arlanda international airport.  The children 
(with estimated ages ranging from ten to eighteen) arrive 
unaccompanied and commonly without travel documents.  They 
travel on flights either directly from Beijing (on Air 
China), or Moscow (on Aeroflot). 
 
¶3.  (U)  Virtually all the children arrive with cell phones 
and small amounts of cash, said Ihrman.  All request asylum, 
and are consequently sent to immigration reception centers. 
The children disappear shortly thereafter.  (As the 
individuals in question are minors and have committed no 
crime, Sweden does not place them in confined centers.)  The 
children's asylum requests are all identical.  When pressed, 
they make vague references to having relatives persecuted for 
links to the Phalun Gong religious movement; beyond that they 
say nothing.  Ihrman said the children appear to have been 
"very professionally coached" in responding to interview 
questions.  He confirmed that so far 120 children have 
disappeared in this manner.  There are currently no such 
children in Swedish immigration reception centers. 
 
Trails Point South 
------------------ 
 
¶4.  (C)  Ihrman expressed dismay that after more than one 
year authorities here have yet to discover the ultimate 
destinations of the children.  He added that all current 
evidence points to onward destinations including Denmark, 
Germany, Italy, France and the Netherlands.  Ihrman confirmed 
press reports that in May, Dutch police detained six Chinese 
children who had earlier disappeared from Swedish immigration 
centers.  Ihrman told us that Swedish police only recently 
learned from the Dutch police that the children had been 
found traveling together on a train between Rotterdam and 
Amsterdam, presumably during some type of routine control. 
He characterized cooperation with Dutch police as "not so 
good."  Ihrman said the six children subsequently disappeared 
before Dutch authorities returned them to Sweden, as would 
normally occur under the Dublin Convention for determining EU 
states responsible for examining asylum applications. 
 
¶5.  (C)  The Swedish Prosecutor recounted a summer 2005 
effort by police to follow a group of children who left a 
Stockholm reception center.  Police observed the children 
receive instructions on their mobile telephones, after which 
they purchased bus tickets to Copenhagen.  (Note.  Swedish 
law prevents wiretapping in such cases; it also prevents 
authorities from restricting the children's movements.  End 
Note.)  Danish police picked up surveillance of the children 
at the border (Ostersund Bridge).  From Denmark, the children 
boarded another bus to Germany.  According to Ihrman, legal 
restrictions on surveillance in Germany prevented police from 
following the trail.  Danish police literally had to watch 
the bus drive away at the border, said Ihrman.  The children 
have not been seen since. 
 
November Arrests Provide No Leads 
--------------------------------- 
 
¶6.  (C)  Swedish authorities, made their initial, and so far 
only, arrests in the case this past November.  Acting on in 
collaboration with their Norwegian counterparts, Swedish 
police followed four Chinese children from the Norwegian 
 
STOCKHOLM 00000054  002 OF 002 
 
 
border to Stockholm, where they were met by two adults, both 
Chinese nationals legally resident in Sweden, who run a sushi 
restaurant two blocks from the National Police Headquarters. 
After overnighting in the restaurant, the children traveled 
to an apartment in a Stockholm suburb, where police arrested 
the two adults and detained the children.  (Note.  The 
children reportedly originally arrived in Norway under 
circumstances similar those described in this cable.  End 
Summary.) 
 
¶7.  (C)  In the apartment police found several high-quality 
forged Japanese passports, and cash amounting to several 
hundred thousand Swedish kronor (equivalent of several 
thousand U.S. dollars).  Ihrman told Poloff the arrested 
adults have refused to provide any information; they remain 
in detention, charged with immigration violations.  The 
children have been returned to Norway.  Ihrman, who had 
recently interviewed the children, said it appeared several 
individuals were involved in helping arrange their travel. 
While in Norway the children made telephone calls to numbers 
in France and Italy.  Norwegian wiretaps of these 
conversations indicated France and Italy were the children's 
onward (though not necessarily final) destinations. 
 
Raising the Issue in Beijing 
---------------------------- 
 
¶8.  (C)  Swedish diplomats in Beijing have raised this issue 
with Chinese authorities, who have expressed their 
willingness to cooperate.  The Chinese have assured the 
Swedes that it would be impossible for a child to leave China 
on an international flight unaccompanied by an adult.  They 
have additionally conducted more careful checks on direct 
flights from Beijing to Stockholm.  Ihrman posits that adults 
involved exit the flights independently in Stockholm or 
Moscow, and/or that the children board in China using false 
documents which they destroy en route.  Last summer 
authorities delayed an Air China flight in Stockholm long 
enough to search the aircraft, but found nothing.  Ihrman 
said Sweden may ask Chinese authorities to check on telephone 
numbers in China to which suspect children have telephoned, 
as well as several Chinese bank account numbers they believe 
may be involved in suspect financial transactions, albeit 
ones not necessarily linked with the trafficking issue. 
 
Comment 
------- 
 
¶9.  (U)  While we admit we have only a superficial grasp of 
this situation, we are nonetheless incredulous about the 
narrow interpretation of laws and implementation of strict 
rights of privacy that paradoxically result in a basic loss 
of human rights of these minors.  We report this to our 
neighboring posts in the hope they may have some 
complimentary information.  While the European nations 
mentioned all are strong advocates of trafficking in persons 
conventions, it seems something critical is lacking on the 
ground when this trafficking actually takes place.  Embassy 
Stockholm will continue to report on this phenomenon as 
information comes to our attention. 
 
NOBLE