2023-04-26 18:36:51
With its may flowers, the “Mayflowers” sold by young Swedes each year in April for the benefit of a charity association, Murhaf Hamid, 12, hoped to make a profit of 100 crowns (around 10 euros). Enough to buy a bus ticket and buy a pizza with his friends, in Kristianstad, the big city 35 kilometers from his village of Glimakra, in the south of the country.
A few days after having started his canvassing, here he is at the head of a small fortune, carried by an unprecedented surge of solidarity and erected as an icon of the fight against racism, in a Swedish society more polarized than ever. The hateful comments that have punctuated his charitable adventure have indeed led most political leaders to commit to buying him a flower. Even if all took care not to mention his situation.
Because Murhaf may have been born in Sweden and have lived there all his life, there is no legal status. The asylum application filed by his mother, of Ethiopian origin, was rejected. Forbidden to stay, but cannot be sent back to her country, she therefore lives in Glimakra, with her three children. Murhaf is the eldest. It was his friends who convinced him to sell May flowers to make some pocket money.
A call on Facebook
Since 1907, these “Mayflowers” have been sold by students aged 10 to 12, in the form of badges, stickers or online. They keep 20% of the sum – half for the seller, the other for the group he represents – and donate 80% to the Majblomman association, which helps families in need.
With his bag full of flowers, Murhaf walked the streets of his village last week. In vain: apart from a few angry comments – related to his skin color, he thinks – he only sold two flowers. Learning of his troubles, the asylum coordinator who takes care of his family, Leila Orahman, launched an appeal on Facebook, with a link to Murhaf’s account.
Two days later, he had collected 200,000 crowns (17,500 euros). A feat hailed by an article in the regional daily Southern Sweden, where the kid explained that he would have liked “buy a residence permit”but as “it was not possible”, he would be satisfied with a new pair of shoes, some new clothes and gifts for his family.
Shared on social media, the article sparked a volley of hateful comments, two of which, in particular, caught the eye, given their overtly racist nature and the fact that their authors claimed to be members of the far-right party. Sweden Democrats (SD). This party, influential with the government coalition elected in September on the promise to restrict the reception of asylum seekers and to expel undocumented migrants, judged the messages against the young Murhaf “completely unacceptable”.
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