ABSTRACT

During the last decades increasing numbers of asylum seeking people have arrived in Sweden. For many ofthese people war and persecution are the foremost reasons for abandoning their countries of origin. Many asylum seeking people are members of families fragmented by crisis in their own countries and by their efforts to flee these situations. In some cases families are forced to make a decision about who should escape and who could stay, a decision that is often based on economic possibilities and political judgements. Some of the families split and escape at different occasions or through different countries. Other families consider that the possibilities for asylum are greater if one family member leaves first. Some families can afford to send away only one member. Parents often feel that their most important obligation is to save their children from war and persecution, organised violence and/or protect them from recruitment as soldiers in war. Sending their children alone to other countries is one way to meet their parental obligations.