The Middle Eastern news network Al Jazeera contacted me early this week and asked me to participate in a discussion online about minors coming to Sweden without their families.

I talked to the interview producers Monis Khan over Skype and we had a good discussion on the somewhat controversial topic.

He concluded that I was sure someone they wanted in the program along with Mikael Ribbenvik from the Swedish Migration Agency and a few other commentators, among the excellent writer Nima Gholam Ali Pour.

Interestingly he seemed to know about my writings in Swedish at the Sweden Democrats’ aligned news site Samtiden and that I had left it with some turbulence. Never mind.

One topic we talked about was the Swedish incapacity to measure the age of the minors. I mentioned that other Nordic countries use doctors, dentists and equipment to verify or dismiss the given age (in our neighbouring countries half are dismissed as above 18 years; Denmark, Norway, Finland). If you are a minor, there are more benefits, so there is an incentive to lie.

I sent therefore this email a day before the scheduled talk with an attached photo of two Afghanis who seem much older than 18

Here are other pictures of what are supposed to be young men under 18:
Petterssons 1 och 2
Aktualia
Avpixlat 1 och 2
Toklandet
Red Cross

The next day I received a mail from Al Jazeera telling me that I was not invited anymore to the program.

There is no idea to try to get an answer from the editors at Al Jazeera if my mail with the photo was causing their rejection of me.

In the meantime, watch the program here at Al Jazeera or at Avpixlat , an alternative news site that I contribute to.

Nima Gholam Ali Pour twittrade efteråt.