These kinds of claims of rampant refugee rapists aren’t new, they’ve been circulating between the warp nacelles of the wingnutosphere for some time.

Journalist Ami Horowitz told Fox News people high up in the Swedish government are purposely covering up the prepretrators of rape crimes to protect "vulnerable" migrants. During an explosive interview on Friday, Mr Horowitz claimed the refugee violence crisis was out-of-control but that "European virtues" had put a stop to any discussion on the statistics. His claims sparked Donald Trump to tell a rally in Florida that migration in Europe was out of control.

Except that, of course, it’s wrong.

The problem, though, is that this “rape epidemic” is as fake as the Bowling Green Massacre. Canadian reporter Doug Saunders rigorously investigated the narrative, and concluded that it “falls apart as soon as you speak to anyone knowledgeable in Sweden.” Official Swedish statistics do indeed show a high rate of rape, but that’s because Swedish law has an extremely expansive definition of what qualifies as rape under the law. ....These panics about immigration, instead, reflect a long history of sexual panics in the West about non-white immigrants. Etc.

And more as reported by Juan Cole.

Henrik Selin, political scientist and deputy director of the Swedish Institute, a state agency dedicated to promoting Sweden globally, said he was puzzled by Mr. Trump’s remarks. “I do not have a clue what he was referring to,” he said in a telephone interview. “Obviously, this could be connected to the fact that there has been a lot of negative reporting about Sweden, since Sweden has taken in a lot of refugees.” … Mr. Selin said the news reports “ were highly exaggerated and not based in facts,” adding, “Some of the stories were very popular to spread in social media by people who have the same kind of agenda — that countries should not receive so many refugees.” As for the cover-up alleged by Mr. Horowitz, Mr. Selin said: “That kind of claim has been in the political debate for 15 years now. But nobody has been able to prove there is a cover-up. On the contrary, the fact is that crime rates are going down.” He added: “Swedish authorities have nothing to gain from hiding the truth. We are quite keen to ensure that the debate and the story about our country is fact-based and nuanced. We are more than happy to talk about the challenges our country faces as well as the things that are going well.”

This is bigoted bullshit, just like the false claim that Trump started his campaign with the “Mexicans are Rapists, [And] they bring crime.” But that doesn’t mean the xenophobes aren’t going to stop claiming it over and over again.

Contrary to their understanding, the US is a signatory the UN Convention on Refugee and it’s 1967 Protocol which requires us to treat legitimate refugees with the same rights and protections as citizens.