UPS Won’t Go

American liberals aspire to be Sweden, so conditions in that country are perennially of interest here and elsewhere in the West. Sweden is actually less liberal than most people think–its tax system, for example, is better and more conservative than ours–but it is true that it has gone all in on refugees. Importing an extraordinary number of Middle Easterners has caused many problems, but reporting on them is controversial. The Swedes discourage it, and the American press is generally happy to oblige.

Malmo is the Swedish city with the largest immigrant population, and the Rosengard neighborhood of Malmo is overwhelmingly immigrant. It has occasionally been reported that there are “no go” zones in Sweden–specifically, in Malmo neighborhoods like Rosengard–but Swedish authorities have denied it. Snopes was quick to debunk the “no go” claim, citing Swedish authorities for the proposition that Swedish police will go anywhere.

I am happy to believe that, but the reality is that some refugee-heavy areas of Sweden are too dangerous for most people to venture into. Aftonbladet, one of Sweden’s principal newspapers, reports, in English via Google Translator:

The international distribution company UPS no longer runs packages in the Malmö district part of Rosengård. Stock Photography.

The transport company UPS no longer runs packages in Rosengård in Malmö, for security reasons. Postnord does not deliver packages to another area in Malmö, Seved.

Postnord is the Swedish postal service.

– We must think of our staff in the first place, says Mathias Krümmel at Postnord.

A person in Malmö who ordered the delivery home to the door received notice from the distribution company UPS that the company no longer supplies to private addresses in the district of Rosengård because of the risk of being exposed to robbery or other crimes, reports Sydsvenskan.

An employee at the company’s customer service tells the newspaper that the home run in Rosengård was stopped two months ago, when drivers were attacked. Even in some areas in Stockholm, UPS has stopped the delivery of parcels.

“The stop will not be forever, but we wait until it feels safe for our drivers,” the employee told the newspaper.

Temporary stops

Postnord delivers packages to Rosengård, but the delivery in the district has been temporarily stopped on some occasions, for the safety of the personnel. Some areas in Stockholm have also had temporary delivery stops in recent years, says Mathias Krümmel, head of production in Postnord.

– I also know that there has been an opportunity where guards have followed our cars, but then it is more often shorter incidents that have solved themselves, he says.

No packages in Seved

Today there is only one area in the country where Postnord does not run home packages, and it is Seved in Malmö. There, companies and residents can collect packages at delivery points.

– The postmen can go there without being threatened, but if we drive there with the package car they will be threatened. Well, it has to do with the value, what is in the packages, guesses Mathias Krümmel.

He notes that security issues in some areas affect all companies that drive out goods.

– It’s really regrettable. We want to drive out and deliver everywhere, but of course we have to think about our staff in the first place.

So the immigrant-heavy areas of Malmo and even Stockholm may not be “no go” zones for the police, but civilian organizations, like UPS and the Swedish post office, don’t dare expose their employees to the risk of violence. That is life in the sort-of-socialist paradise of Sweden.

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