Rinkeby! Beyond the headlines

Biniam Araya and Berhe Tekle having a coffee at Nejos café in Rinkeby. Photo: Magnus Laupa / Kontinent

 

By Magnus Laupa Rinkeby! The suburb in the northwestern part of Stockholm has it’s headlines. And not only in Sweden, but around the world. United States, Germany and Russia. Rinkeby has been reported to be a ”no-go zone”, where even the police do not dare to go. ”Some people think that if they get to Rinkeby, they don’t get out alive”. When the suburb is given attention, it is generally for the reasons of violence. It is facts that the suburban suffers from criminal gangs and violence but residents believe that even ordinary people are labeled as criminals. The reporter Sami Sillanpää and photographer Magnus Laupa went to Rinkeby to meet people in their daily lifes behind the alarming headlines.