Don't come to Sweden: Syrian social media star dispels myths about life as migrant

A Syrian refugee turned social media star is teaching his followers the truth about life in Sweden.

v

(BBC)

Syrian refugee Mahmoud Bitar has used social media to joke about what life is really like for a refugee in Sweden.

The 23-year-old documented his three-year journey to from Syria to Sweden – with plenty of stops in between – on social media, gaining more than 60,000 fans on Instagram.

But Mr Bitar said life in Sweden was more difficult than people thought and he wanted to warn his fellow countrymen about what they were really facing.

"People exaggerate how amazing life in Sweden is and when they come here they are shocked," he said.

"I wanted to show the reality using comedy so that people would get it."
In a video posted to his Facebook page, Mr Bitar joked about a small dog having a European passport. In another video he can be seen walking to his backyard and approaching a tree. "The Euro tree is ready for picking," he says, pulling notes from its branches. He then goes over to inspect the next tree, saying, "What about the dollar tree?" When he sees it has no money on it he says, "It's not ready yet." 

In a video produced by the BBC, the Mr Bitar explained why so many Syrians tried to get to Sweden.

"If you Google 'asylum' in Arabic, Sweden comes up on the top," he said.

But he had a warning for them before they made the journey.

"Don't come to Sweden, or at least think carefully about it."

Sweden takes in more Syrian asylum seekers than many of its neighbours, with numbers totalling more than 62,000 since 2011.

By comparison, the UK received less than 7000.


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Don't come to Sweden: Syrian social media star dispels myths about life as migrant | SBS News