Video of pregnant woman dragged off train by Swedish police sparks outrage over ‘racial profiling’

Video footage of Swedish security guards dragging a heavily pregnant black woman off a subway train in Sweden's capital of Stockholm has triggered an outcry against "racial profiling” in the European country.

The footage went viral on Friday, showing the black woman, believed to be eight months pregnant, being forcefully manhandled out of the train at Hotorget metro station in the central capital.

The guards are seen arguing with the unnamed woman and at the same time dragging her further away and pushing her onto a wooden bench as her sobbing daughter tries to guard her.        

The daughter, who was crying uncontrollably, walks behind with another woman and is later led away by a third guard.

In a second video, the woman is seen lying on the ground with parts of her body exposed, while screaming at the guards who surround her.

Stockholm metro security guards claimed that the woman and her young daughter had been caught without a ticket.

The woman was then rushed to hospital for treatment and the two guards have been suspended pending an inquiry, according to Swedish media.

Police confirmed the woman was injured and that they were investigating the incident as a potential case of assault.

"There are many mobile phone videos that have been posted about this that suggest that the security guards were too forceful," Henrik Palmer, a spokesman with Stockholm's SL public transport provider, told Swedish media.

Reacting to the incident, women’s rights defenders said they were not surprised by the Swedish guards' mistreatment and racial profiling of the woman.

"The victim is currently in the hospital and all I can do is hope the baby is alright because if anything happens to that child...there will be hell to pay," said Lovette Jallow, an activist who posted the video of the incident on her Instagram page.

Men for Gender Equality (MGE), a Swedish anti-racist organization, said in an interview with the BBC that the incident was not the first time security guards had used excessive force in recent months.

"When it comes to people of color - non-white Swedes - we have seen there's a lot of evidence that security guards use violence and sometimes when it's totally unnecessary," MGE president Alan Ali said.

Countries across Europe have seen a significant rise in xenophobia and anti-immigrant sentiments over the past years.

Amnesty International has sounded the alarm about far-right and right-wing parties in Europe advocating anti-immigration and anti-Muslims policies.

The European Union's Agency for Fundamental Rights (FRA) said in a report last November that black people have been the target of “prejudice” and “racism” across the bloc.

PressTV-Black people face discrimination in EU, bloc admits

Black people have been the target of “prejudice” and “racism” in the European Union (EU), according to an EU agency.

Colored people living in the EU “face widespread and entrenched prejudice and exclusion,” the agency said. “Racial discrimination and harassment are commonplace. Experiences with racist violence vary greatly across countries, but reach as high as 14 %. Discriminatory profiling by the police, too, is a common reality. Hurdles to inclusion are multi-faceted.”

The report surveyed some 6,000 people of African descent in 12 EU member states.

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