Norwegian-Somali children are still sent to Koranic schools in Somalia and Kenya, where some of them are subjected to violence and are locked up. Monday, two weeks ago, Minister Tonje Brenna boards a plane in Kenya’s capital, Nairobi. news is on the journey. – Now we are going to Mogadishu in Somalia to talk to the authorities. We want to do better to prevent Norwegian-Somali children from being involuntarily left abroad, says Brenna (Ap). She has the professional responsibility for integration in the Government. The secrecy is due to her safety. Somalia is a dangerous country. The airport is regularly attacked by the terrorist group al-Shabaab. Tonje Brenna, on the way to board the flight to Mogadishu, with the airline Freedom Air. Photo: Tormod Strand / news After landing in Mogadishu, it is important to quickly get from the airport to the hotel, where all the meetings with Somali politicians will take place. Norwegian bodyguards from PST are on the journey. They are armed and ready to protect the minister with their lives. With quick steps, we move the few meters in open country from the airport to the hotel. Tonje Brenna in Mogadishu, in conversation with her bodyguards from PST. Photo: Tormod Strand / news In relative safety on top of the airport hotel, overlooking Mogadishu, the minister reflects on the fact that we cannot go into the city. It’s too dangerous. – It is a huge paradox to send children from safe Norway to Somalia, which is in many ways unsafe. It underlines why it is hugely important that we put an end to this. Norwegian children should not be sent abroad against their will, says Tonje Brenna. Tonje Brenna, on her way to the hotel in Mogadishu, together with two female bodyguards from PST. Photo: Tormod Strand / news Somali authorities: – Yes, we are also concerned It was news that in 2017 and 2018 revealed that Norwegian-Somali children and young people were sent to so-called Koranic schools in Kenya and Somalia. There they talked about treatment that the Norwegian authorities called torture. The cases received a lot of attention. In 2017, news revealed Koranic schools in Somalia and Somaliland, where Norwegian-Somali children and young people talked about whipping and the use of ankle chains. Photo: Esther Bjørneboe / news But everything indicates that Norwegian-Somali parents are still sending children and young people to Somalia and Kenya. They must have become too “Western” or have come across crime. This is according to an annual report from the special envoy for integration at the Norwegian embassy in Kenya. Tonje Brenna met several Somali politicians in Mogadishu. Here she meets a representative of the Somali Foreign Ministry. Photo: Tormod Strand / news The Minister of Education is the first Brenna meets. Then there is the Deputy Minister in the Ministry of Family and Human Rights, Hanan Abdiasis Barre. It turns out that she speaks Norwegian, because she partly grew up in Stavanger and Ørsta. The Deputy Minister in the Ministry of Family and Human Rights, Hanan Abdiasis Barre. She has a Norwegian background. Photo: Tormod Strand / news She says that the Somali authorities are also concerned about the conditions for children from Western countries. – Yes, we are worried. And we try as much as we can to work with the Norwegian authorities, so that Norwegian-Somali children are safe here in Somalia. – How big a problem is it? – There are some places where children are locked up in private schools. They feel it is not safe. Sometimes they don’t get enough food and there is violence there. – Why don’t the Somali authorities stop this? – We will now work together with Norwegian families and the Norwegian authorities. We will try as much as we can to stop this, says the deputy minister. The hotel where Tonje Brenna had meetings was surrounded by high walls and barbed wire. Photo: Tormod Strand / news – Parents in Norway know very well what they are sending their children to. It is Sahfana Ali Mubarak from Stavanger, special envoy for integration at the Norwegian embassy in Kenya, who does the work on the ground. Desperate Norwegian-Somali youth who want help to get home to Norway contact her. The question is, do the parents know what they are sending their children to? – The organizations we work with in Somalia and other sources we have contact with say that the parents in Norway know very well what they are sending their children to. When we talk about these disciplinary institutions, our sources say that the parents know that the children are exposed to violence, says Mubarak. – What do you think about that? – Parents have a responsibility to ensure that their children are well looked after, so that they are not exposed to neglect. If the individual parent knows that the children are exposed to serious violence at these schools, then it is very serious. Sahfana Ali Mubarak is special envoy for integration at the Norwegian embassy in Kenya. Photo: Vegard Tjørhom / news The organization Tusmo Association in Norway works to achieve better integration of Somalis. Program director Abdullahi Ibrahim comments on the information that parents know what they are sending their children to as follows to news: – Parents have a responsibility to protect their children from harmful experiences and environments. If someone chooses to do the opposite, it is a serious matter, says Ibrahim. PST’s bodyguard waits outside the meeting room where Tonje Brenna has meetings. Photo: Tormod Strand / news After hour-long meetings, Brenna and the team set course back towards Kenya. – What was your impression after meeting the Somali authorities? – They take our concern seriously, they are not interested in this giving Somalis in Norway a bad reputation, and that Somalia is a place where this type of treatment happens to children. It then remains to be seen whether it is possible to get something concrete out of this collaboration. She emphasizes that no western country has ever traveled to Somalia to raise this with the Somali authorities, although this also happens to children in other western countries. – Now I do it, says Brenna to news. Tonje Brenna and Norway’s ambassador to Kenya, Gunnar Andreas Holm, meet Somali politicians. Photo: Tormod Strand / news – I saw other young people being beaten with sticks The next day, in Kenya’s capital Nairobi. The Minister of State meets an organization that provides protection to women exposed to violence in the Soweto district. news together with “Nora” in Eastleigh in Nairobi. Around 100,000 people live here, most of whom have a Somali background. Photo: Robert Lutta / news news is on the other side, in the Eastleigh district with around 100,000 inhabitants. It is the Somali part of Nairobi. Here there are several Koranic schools, or disciplinary institutions, as the Norwegian authorities call them. There are also many children and young people with a Somali background from Western countries at these institutions. We meet a local woman. Let’s call her Nora. She has worked to close Koranic schools in the district. She does not want us to use her name or face, for her own safety. She is one of those who have provided information about the schools to, among other things, the Norwegian authorities. She takes us through the streets of Eastleigh. Some lie right on the street and sleep off their intoxication. This is a very poor part of Nairobi. Nora takes us to a place where a few years ago there was a Koranic school for women and young men. Many were from Western countries. Some had drug problems, others had been sent there because they had become too Western in their attitudes. “Nora” shows where there used to be Koranic schools in Eastleigh. Photo: Robert Lutta / news She says that she and the neighbors started hearing crying in the evenings from this place. – We discovered that what was going on in there was bad. The girls were used as sex workers. The boys were beaten. They received no medical attention. We reported everything, and finally got help from the police to close the place, says Nora. Several of the women became pregnant as a result of rape, and many had venereal diseases, she says. Through Nora, news gets in touch with a woman in her early 20s, who has attended such a disciplinary institution in Kenya. She does not want to show her face, because of her own safety. She was placed by her mother at the Koranic school four years ago, because she used nicotine and hashish. There were several here from Western countries, she says. – I saw other young people being beaten with sticks, and they got cold water all over them. This was not a good place, she says. – I saw other young people being beaten with sticks, says a Somali woman news met in Eastleigh. She was placed in a Koranic school by her mother. Photo: Robert Lutta / news news cannot contact the Koran school, which is still open, due to her safety. “Nora” tells about the Koranic school she accidentally discovered, because she heard crying from there. Photo: Robert Lutta / news Nora says several of these schools no longer advertise on social media after several were closed by the police. They don’t hang signs in the streetscape. – But they still exist, they’ve just gone underground, says Nora. Brenna: – We must consider introducing an exit ban On the grounds of the Norwegian embassy in Kenya, behind high protective walls, the minister meets employees of other western embassies in Nairobi. Australia, Great Britain, the Netherlands and Sweden are represented. Tonje Brenna and integration adviser Sahfana Ali Mubarak, at the Norwegian embassy in Kenya. Photo: Robert Lutta / news They all tell about the same problem: Young people with a Somali background who are sent to Koranic schools and who are damaged in body and soul. It is very difficult to provide aid once they are sent to Somalia. The representatives of the foreign embassies sat with their backs to them, they did not want to be in pictures. They talked about the same experiences that the Norwegian authorities have with Norwegian-Somali children and young people, in a meeting with Tonje Brenna. Photo: Tormod Strand / news The Norwegian government is now working on several proposals, including an exit ban from Norway. – This trip confirms that it becomes very difficult to help children the moment they are out of Norway. We must do more to prevent children from being sent out of the country. Therefore, I believe that we must consider introducing an exit ban in cases where there is a suspicion that children are being sent out against their will, says Tonje Brenna. Tonje Brenna, on top of the hotel in Mogadishu. Photo: Tormod Strand / news She is worried about what staying in a disciplinary institution does to the young people, and what happens to them when they come home to Norway. – I am afraid that they will become very easy prey for criminal circles. You come back with worse language, you have lost a lot of education and networks, she says to news. Sahfana Ali Mubarak at the Norwegian embassy in Kenya says there is little indication that the scope has decreased since news uncovered the Koranic schools seven years ago. Every six months, she gets 40-50 new cases to work on – desperate Norwegian-Somali youths begging for help to get home to Norway. A young Norwegian-Somali boy managed to send this email to the Norwegian embassy in Nairobi. Photo: Terje Haugnes / news – A young man recently traveled home to Norway. But what is he waiting for there? What worries me in his case is that he does not get the follow-up he should have, he is left to his own devices. So I think there is a great danger that he may fall back into the criminal environment he left, says Sahfana Ali Mubarak to news Published 11.11.2024, at 05.35
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Tonje Brenna on a secret trip to Somalia about Koranic schools – news Norway – Overview of news from different parts of the country
