International Hotspots

In March 2015, journalist Henrik Höjer discussed the rise of criminality,
especially organized crime, in various neighborhoods within Sweden since the mid-
1990s, especially in the city of Malmö. He interviewed a police officer and task force
chief who referred to such areas as "no go areas" and wrote that gangs like to lay claim
to an area by throwing stones at mailmen, police, firefighters and ambulances who enter
the area.
In February 2016, a news crew for Australia's 60 Minutes working with anti-immigration
activist Jan Sjunnesson reported having come under attack, including allegedly having
stones thrown on them and a car running over the foot of a cameraman who was trying
to prevent it from leaving in the immigrant-dominated district
of Rinkeby of Stockholm. 60 Minutes published the video, on which reporter Liz
Hayes says "there are now 55 declared no-go zones in Sweden."
A 10-minute December 2016 film by FoxNews.com's Ami Horowitz, Stockholm
Syndrome, focused on violence by Muslim immigrants within Sweden, and included an
interview with two policemen who seemed to confirm that there are no-go areas for
police in Sweden. During the interview, one officer states, "If the police is chasing
another car for some kind of crime, if they reach what we call 'no-go areas', the police
won't go after it." The police officers later objected to the interview and said that their
quotes had been taken out of context, and a videographer who worked on the film
supported the officers' account, saying the video was cut together unethically. The
documentary gained significant attention several months later when U.S.
President Donald Trump indirectly alluded to it in a speech. The film as a whole, and its
description of no-go areas, have both been disputed by sources within Sweden; the
Swedish The Local quoted a police spokesperson as saying that, though there are
areas "characterized by, among other things, the difficulty for the police to fulfill its duty",
"There are no guidelines that the police should not visit these areas". The description of
no-go zones was also disputed by several sources, including the interviewed policemen.
United Kingdom
Around the time of the 2001 Oldham riots, BBC Radio 4 reporter Barnie Choudhury
wrote "An investigation for Today has found disturbing evidence that Asian youths in
parts of Oldham are trying to create no go areas for white people...It's not clear whether
this is bravado but their message is blunt... white people keep out".
In 2012, Professor Hamid Ghodse of the United Nations' International Narcotics Control
Board included areas of Birmingham, Manchester and Liverpool as "no-go areas" run by
drug traffickers, comparing them to Brazilian favelas. Local police forces denied the
claims. In 2015 Donald Trump, in the early stages of his presidential campaign, stated
on Twitter that the UK was trying to "disguise [its] massive Muslim problem", and
retweeted an article which falsely claimed that the city of Birmingham was totally under
Muslim control. These remarks were condemned by the mayor of Birmingham.
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