In 2023, only 50 cases of HIV were recorded among Ukrainians in Sweden. The news about sex work, through which the infection is allegedly massively transmitted to locals, is fabricated.
Pro-Russian sources are spreading information that Ukrainian immigrants are allegedly massively infecting Swedish citizens with HIV through sex work. Citing the article of the local media Dagens Nyheter, propagandists write that due to poor social support and limited rights, many Ukrainians in Sweden — both men and women — are on the verge of survival, thus are forced to resort to sex work. The publications note that it is Ukrainians who took first place in Sweden in terms of infecting local residents with HIV, while citizens of Thailand and Uganda were in second and third place, respectively.
However, such publications clearly distort and manipulate information from the Swedish Public Health Agency, and some aspects of the news are completely fabricated. First, the Dagens Nyheter article does indeed address the problems that Ukrainian refugees face in Sweden: low social benefits, limited access to language courses and other integration tools, involvement in the informal labor market without an employment contract and respective rights. However, the article does not mention that these difficulties drive Ukrainians to the brink of poverty, and that immigrants are forced to engage in sex work. It is important to note that Sweden has adopted a so-called «Nordic approach» to sex work, according to which the purchase of such services and pimping are considered criminal offenses. In this regard, the level of sex work in Sweden is very low, so it is hard to believe that this sphere was suddenly flooded by HIV-infected Ukrainian citizens.
Secondly, the report that Ukrainians are the leading source of HIV infection among local citizens is also false. The 2023 report classifies HIV cases by country of infection, distinguishing between Sweden and foreign countries, among which Ukraine indeed dominates. However, it is logical to assume that Ukrainian citizens are the ones who are mainly infected with HIV in Ukraine, and the cases recorded in Sweden are caused by previously infected refugees arriving in the country and thus becoming part of the local health statistics. This is also confirmed by the fact that in 2022 — that is, when the first wave of refugees arrived in Sweden — the number of cases from Ukraine was twice as high. It is also indicative that in fact the statistics refer to only 51 cases of HIV infection among Ukrainian citizens in Sweden — while there are more than 35 thousand displaced persons from Ukraine in the country. So, this news, although based on real data, completely misinterprets facts and draws conclusions based on popular Russian propaganda clichés.
Previously, Russian sources have already spread false information about Ukrainian refugees in Sweden, which we refuted in the article Fake: Sweden Will Pay 30,000 Euros to Ukrainian Refugees to Leave the Country. Moreover, unfounded claims that displaced women are allegedly massively involved in sex work regularly feature in fake Russian propaganda. Read one of our refutations on this topic here.
