Morgan Johansson, who in recent weeks emerged as a staunch defender of Sweden's immigration policies against US President Donald Trump, former UKIP leader Nigel Farage and a plethora of anti-migrant politicians on the home front, has landed in trouble over a dubious tweet.
"Met yesterday with unaccompanied [refugee] youths who shared their experience of being a refugee and going through the asylum process. Very educational!" Morgan Johansson's tweet read, supplemented with a self-describing image.
Träffade igår ensamkommande ungdomar som berättade om sina erfarenheter av flykt och asylprocess. Mycket lärorikt! pic.twitter.com/40p9hoFaws
— Morgan Johansson (@johanssonmorgan) March 10, 2017
However, this seemingly harmless post, in which the Swedish Minister appeared to be the shortest one, triggered a storm of caustic comments from users who ventured that some of the so-called "refugee children" did not look like children at all.
"How does it feel to be the smallest and the youngest in the class?" a third one inquired, challenging Johansson's description of the "unaccompanied youths."
"Good thing you found a girl also, that's neat and tidy. By the way, what kindergarten were you in?" another user jested, mocking the perennial efforts from Sweden's government, which considers itself "feminist," to achieve gender equality at all levels.
Yet another user turned to an automatic age-identification app to determine how old the Minister's new friends were. Remarkably, the "youths" on the picture were guesstimated to be between the ages of 22 and 44, almost as old as 46-year-old Johansson himself.
@johanssonmorgan @JohnnyBrottom9 Hur gammal är du, Mogge? pic.twitter.com/v3u3uOcVW9
— Idiot: Okänd (@IdiotOkand) March 10, 2017
Ironically, a similar picture of Swedish Prime Minister Stefan Löfven in the company of "refugee children" that he described as an "extremely motivated gang" lit up Swedish social media as a model example of a publicity stunt gone wrong. Löfven's image of borderline adults triggered an endless spate of sarcastic comments. Many users noted dryly that they saw no children in the picture, whereas others derisively inquired if Löfven had brought the "kids" toys to play.
Previously, numerous reports revealed widespread age fraud, identifying single instances of adults aged 30 and over posing as teens. The Swedish age-verification system, which has hitherto mostly relied on interviews, was repeatedly criticized as "naïve."
Professor varnar för konsekvenserna att Sverige tagit in massor av #ensamkommande #svpol #migpol #säkpol #feminism https://t.co/zQqol5bHXA pic.twitter.com/3K7ZBDHVCb
— Olikavärden (@Svenskis) January 30, 2017
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