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In more than 50 years the IKEA store in Kållered
has served and inspired customers as the biggest furniture store on the Swedish west coast
When it opened in 1972 it was the seventh IKEA store in the world compared to 379 IKEA stores now operated by Ingka Group
the store has been relocated and reinvented into a modern home furnishing experience center
with more space for home furnishing inspiration and food experiences
Country Business Development & Transformation Manager
The new store covers 42.000 square meters and has a unique layout which offers an accessible shopping experience for customers and more space for inspiration
a bistro outside the checkouts and a new café in the market hall offer customers more areas to meet
and pick-up lockers for online orders the accessibility for customers has been improved both inside and outside the store
the biggest IKEA retailer is coming closer to customers with new store formats and also by heavily investing in existing stores to take on future customer needs and support online deliveries
IKEA has increased the number of customer meeting points in Sweden from 20 stores and one plan and order point to in total 33 stores and plan and order points of various sizes
With IKEA retail operations in 31 markets, Ingka Group is the largest IKEA retailer and represents about 90% of IKEA retail sales. It is a strategic partner to develop and innovate the IKEA business and help define common IKEA strategies. Ingka Group owns and operates IKEA sales channels under franchise agreements with Inter IKEA Systems B.V. It has three business areas: IKEA Retail, Ingka Investments and Ingka Centres. Read more on ingka.com
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Peab has been commissioned to build the new IKEA department store in Kållered
The customer is IKEA Fastigheter AB and the contract is worth SEK 795 million
The new department store will be 37,000 m2 and is part of an agreement between Peab and IKEA Fastigheter AB signed in December 2010
Under the agreement Peab will build ten IKEA department stores in the Nordic area and this cooperation is proceeding according to plan
“In our cooperation with IKEA every department store is a milestone
of which the actual construction is one part
The final goal is turning over the store to IKEA and together with its employees opening its doors to curious customers
Several of our employees have followed all or some part of this “department store journey” and done a fantastic job,” says Christer Lund
The department store in Kållered is the seventh of the designated ten
Sustainability is a focal point in the work on the new department store and both IKEA and Peab have their sights set on the construction process leading to BREEAM certification
“It’s exciting to be part of the process of building the department store of the future together with IKEA and at the same time contribute to the development of Mölndal City,” says Stellan Haraldsson
The ground and civil engineering work in Kållered has already begun
The project will be order registered in the third quarter of 2018
Illustration: IKEA Svenska Försäljnings AB
Peab is a leading Nordic construction and civil engineering company with about 15,000 employees and SEK 50 billion in net sales
The Group has strategically placed offices in Sweden
Company headquarters are in Förslöv on Bjäre Peninsula in southern Sweden
The Peab share is listed on NASDAQ Stockholm
81 year old Virgin Istibian was put on a chartered plane to Armenia – a country she has no connection to while her children and grandchildren are left in Sweden
The Swedish Aliens Act states that there are exceptional grounds during which persons may be allowed to stay in Sweden
If it does not apply to single 81-year-old women
The views expressed in the article are the author’s own and do not represent Global Bar Magazine
One morning in early December in Trollhättan
an hour’s drive from Sweden’s second largest city Gothenburg
three civilian police officers pounded on Virgin Istiban’s door
The 81-year old woman whose real name is Vergine (but was changed to Virgin on her identification documents when she arrived in Sweden years ago)
was ordered to prove his right to be in Sweden
that he has been in Sweden for over 30 years
who doesn’t speak Swedish would understand that she had to go with them to the police station
she was taken to the Kållered detention center
Then she was taken to the detention center in Stockholm where she was held for four days.
Her family was told that she had to leave Sweden
and that her flight was departing on December 16
They couldn’t give her the personal effects she needed
On board were three officials/police officers
Vahe asks why the Aliens Act didn’t apply to his 81- year old mother
”The Swedish Aliens Act states that if you are an especially deserving case
If this doesn’t apply to a widowed 81- year old woman to whom does it apply?”
In the police authority’s deportation order dated December 2
it says that Virgin’s permanent residence permit was revoked when the authorities learned that in addition to her Syrian passport
When she didn’t freely cooperate in her deportation to Armenia
Sweden couldn’t send her to Syria where there is a war
literally stepping over the corpses of her neighbors who had been massacred by Isis.
She went to Lebanon and applied to come to Sweden
Her two sons had lived in Sweden for decades
With that she could make her way to Sweden by way of Slovenia and Germany
Like most asylum seekers who had made their way to Sweden
she had used the services of human smugglers and had taken their advice to do this
In the Migration Court’s verdict (December 14
it is stated that Virgin held a permanent residence permit in Sweden from January 5
when it was revoked by the Migration Agency
as an Armenian citizen didn’t have the right to stay in Sweden
Residence permits may be revoked if ”a foreigner has wilfully given false information”
But there is a clause in the law which they had overlooked
If you have held a permit for over four years
the reason to revoke it must be very strong
Special consideration must be given to the foreigner’s living conditions and connection to children residing in Sweden
I went with some local colleagues to meet the 81-year-old Virgin in a suburb of the Armenian capital Yerevan
She shares a two-room apartment with three relatives
the apartment is as cold inside as it is outdoors
The rooms are ten square meters/108 square feet each
Virgin sleeps in the other room together with two women
Virgin’s bed is the wooden bench we’re sitting on
Virgin can’t understand why the Swedish police were so brutal
didn’t even allow me to dress properly before they took me to the police station
I hadn’t fallen asleep until five in the morning and had taken sleeping pills
Virgin’s parents had survived the genocide of Christians by the Ottoman Empire in present day Turkey
They had fled to Syria and started a family
Virgin was born and lived there until she was forced to flee
and other terrorist groups wanted to cleanse Syria of Christians
Reluctantly she did what her children told her
and fled to Lebanon and from there to Armenia
Armenia issued passports for all Syrian-Armenians including those still in Syria
Virgin applied for asylum in Sweden and was granted permanent residence
Virgin made friends and built a social circle in Sweden
She didn’t have to live in a was torn country or fear being killed for her faith
They told her they had obtained information that she had an Armenian passport
She told the Migration Agency that she has no connection to Armenia and didn’t want to be sent there
Two years later her deportation was enforced
”After eight years in Sweden I was thrown out
for almost two weeks.” She falls silent for a long time
First I lost my home and everything I had in Syria
I am a sick old woman who’s been left without help
I fled a war and was sent back to another war
Senior Protection Officer at the UN Refugee Agency in Armenia about Virgin Istiban’s case
They contacted her and scheduled a meeting
For over a month I have carefully scrutinized the complex world of numbers on deportations and enforcement of the Swedish Migration Agency
says that they deport everyone they can in order to fudge the numbers
That political parties and executives in charge apply pressure to make the statistics look good for their own agenda
Hello Migration Agency: You see to it that she can come home to her children and grandchildren
Facts about Swedish deportationsLast year the number of deportees according to the Swedish Prison and Probation Service was 1 222
These are persons for whom the agency has provided tickets
as the final number has not yet been tallied.
Then there are those who for whom they charted airplanes
Two hundred and fourteen (214) persons who were deported by the Migration Agency because they didn’t have the right to residence
One hundred and thirty two (132) persons deported by the Prison and Probation Service
most of them convicted for crimes and condemned to deportation
According to the Migration Agency 20 persons were deported to Armenia
three Syrians and one with unknown citizenship
According to the agency Virgin Istiban belongs to the Armenian category
Three of them in chartered airplanes with only one passenger
Virgin Istiban was one of these three.
From the police: 2 756 cases where the Migration Agency had decided on deportation
but for various reasons were handed over to the police (the deportee had absconded and is wanted
has stated that he or she is unwilling to leave the country freely
has threatened violence or committed an act of violence
Virgin Istiban also belongs to this group.
Especially deserving case In the first paragraph of Aliens Act
it is made clear that if a residence permit cannot be granted on other grounds
such a permit can be granted to a foreigner if an overall assessment of the situation of the foreigner merits special consideration
the foreigner can be allowed to stay in Sweden.
242 persons were granted residence by the Migration Agency because they were especially deserving cases
The migration courts lack the necessary tools to look for verdicts where the especially deserving clause has been used
No one in the agencies can provide an answer to how many times it has been used to overturn a deportation order
But according to the Migration Agency 168 persons were granted residence on those grounds after a verdict.
In total 12 000 persons were granted asylum in Sweden in the same year.
The war between Azerbaijan and Armenia/Ngarno-Karabakh In the fall of 2020 up to 100 000 ethnic Armenians were forced to flee
and several thousand soldiers were killed on each side of the conflict
Armenia and Azerbaijan signed a ceasefire treaty negotiated by Russia
As late as January 12 this year it was broken
Three Armenian and two Azerbaijani soldiers are reported to have been killed in the clashes
*The above article was published in Swedish in the newspaper Expressen’s Op-Ed section.
#DemandForAction
Nuri KinoIndependent investigative multi-award-winning reporter & minority rights expert
Global Bar Magazine följer utvecklingen i världen
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