Child seeking asylum in Sweden raises $230,000 after racist taunts

Sales soar after a viral post about the boy, and a racist backlash only makes more money as people rally behind him.

Stockholm, Switzerland – Murhaf Hamid hoped he could earn enough money to buy a pizza with friends when he started selling “majblommor” flower pins in southern Sweden.

Children aged 9 to 12 sell the pins as part of an annual campaign by Majblomman, Sweden’s oldest charity, to combat child poverty in the country.

Children are allowed to keep 10 percent of the money they collect, as well as tips.

Murhaf, 11, never expected she would break the charity’s fundraising record and become a viral sensation along the way.

It did not start well for Murhaf. Some adults told him to get off the streets, leaving him discouraged.

A family friend, Leila Orahman, saw that the rejections bothered Murhaf and decided to write a social media post about him.

It quickly went viral and eventually made headlines across the country when more than 3.2 million kroner ($223,200) was invested in its digital fundraising page. He also received 112,000 crowns ($10,830) in tips.

Åsa Henell, the charity’s general secretary, told TT Newswire that the sales were “absolutely incredible” and that they had “never seen anything like it”. She said the kids usually raise about $100.

Public protests after racist comments

Although most of the comments on Orahman’s post were supportive of Murhaf’s campaign, there were also racist comments.

A tweet from an apparent member of the far-right populist Sweden Democrats party used various racist slurs and suggested that a “white Swedish child” should receive all public support.

Murhaf, born in Sweden, has asylum seeker status and does not have a residence permit.

The Swedish newspaper Dagens Nyheter reported that the Murhaf family’s asylum application was rejected three times. However, for various reasons, the family cannot be deported to her mother’s country of origin, Ethiopia.

The hateful comments only brought more attention to the campaign as people rallied behind Murhaf, including Prime Minister Ulf Kristersson, who said those who wrote racist comments should be “ashamed”.

Orahman told the Swedish newspaper Aftonbladet that it was not the first time Murhaf had been subjected to racism.

However, he noted the “very positive response from the Swedish public” with so much money poured into his fundraising page that it collapsed.

‘It increased my confidence’

Murhaf has now been invited to the Swedish parliament and the city council of Malmö, the third largest city in Sweden.

Murhaf told SVT, Sweden’s public broadcaster, that he “wanted to buy a residence permit” with the money, but agreed that “it’s not possible.”

Instead, she plans to buy a mobile phone, shoes, and clothes.

He said that the fact that he has been able to sell so many flower pins has “increased my confidence in myself, that I can handle more things in life.”

The Sweden Democrats described the racist comments as “unacceptable behaviour”.

“We have notified our membership department and will handle the matter internally,” a statement said.