close
Thursday March 28, 2024

Door 'nailed shut': Swedish parents lock kids over fear of contracting virus

Between March and early July, the children, aged 10 to 17, and the family "were prohibited from leaving the apartment", says lawyer

By AFP & APP
September 02, 2020
A big sticker of the healthcare services of Sweden was placed on the pavement in Stockholm to instruct people to remain 2 meters apart. — AFP/Files

STOCKHOLM: Fearing that their children might contract coronavirus, Swedish parents locked up their children, the youngsters' lawyer said Wednesday.

The three kids have been removed from home,  the lawyer Mikael Svegfors told AFP.

Between March and early July, the children, aged 10 to 17, and the family "were prohibited from leaving the apartment", Svegfors said.

The children were not allowed to see each other, locked in their own rooms, and ate their meals there, said the Jonkoping administrative court in southern Sweden.

In addition, the door to the home had been "nailed shut" so no one could go out, the court found.

The parents deny locking in the children against their will and plan to appeal the ruling, local radio reported.

Unlike many other European countries, Sweden did not impose a strict lockdown and kept schools open for children under 16. The Scandinavian country has one of the world's highest COVID-19 death tolls relative to population, with 575 deaths per million.

The parents "come from another part of the world" and do not speak Swedish fluently, lawyer Svegfors said.

"They couldn't really understand the news here. They kept following the news feed over the internet from their old country" which had imposed much stricter confinement measures.