[5][6] The debate ended with a more generous refugee policy that formulated a new condition for the apathetic children titled "resignation syndrome" (uppgivenhetssyndrom in Swedish).
[16] According to an article published in Svenska Dagbladet by chief physician Hans Bendz, simulation is a known phenomenon and it is not impossible in the case of the apathetic children.
[17] A study conducted in 2016 stated that the children were either catatonic[18] as a result of psychogenic stress due to waiting for asylum or that they were victims of malingering by proxy,[19] rendering them unable to eat, drink or talk.
The Swedish Social and Health Authority, in its Guidelines on Uppgivenhets Syndrome published in 2013, writes that a patient is not completely healthy until the family has received a permanent residence permit.
The book was criticized by Swedish doctor and associate professor, Tomas J Eriksson, stating that Tamas had failed to discuss why there was an increase from zero to 400 cases within a few years and why it decreased again.
[32] According to an article published by DTMedia, reporters Gellert Tamas and Janne Josefsson did not listen to the criteria for forced simulation which Jackson presented in his participation on Uppdrag Granskning.
[38] Marie Hessler, head of the Stockholm County Council's child psychiatry unit, stated that she had never witnessed any similar cases in the neighboring Nordic countries.
[40] In 2005, there was a case of a severely depressed boy who faced deportation and the Swedish humanitarian organizations demanded he be granted permanent residence.
At the time, migration minister, Barbro Holmberg, said that giving special treatment could increase the risk for even more asylum children to become apathetic.
[42] Holmberg was also criticized in chronicles published in Barometern and Gefle Blad for having stated that "refugee parents drugged and abused their own children".
In this interview, she stated that the board had been investigating some "irregularities" among the refugee families indicating that the parents were in some way responsible for the condition of the children, either through psychological manipulation or medication.
[48] However, Thomas Jackson, psychiatrist, doctor and the elected expert of the state investigation during the Labour Party at the time concluded that the children were under severe abuse being tube fed by parents or guardians intending to weaken the child to gain wealth from the Swedish welfare system.
[49][50] This led to a large controversy and Jackson was labeled as an "incompetent Nazi" by author Gellert Tamas[51] and by reporters Malena Rydell and Jenny Wennberg of Arbetarbladet.
[62] In another article by Svenska Dagbladet, the National Board of Health and Welfare had failed in reporting the suspected abuse of children by refusing to cooperate with the authorities.
[65] According to an article published by Aftonbladet in 2005, Janna Valik, the general director of the Migration Agency, failed to investigate reports of abuse among apathetic children and was displaced by the government.
Bill Schiller from the BBC aired a radio episode stating that this phenomenon did not exist in other countries which led to a savage debate as to whether or not the children were faking.
[78] According to an article by Svenska Dagbladet, the number of apathetic refugee children has decreased ever since financed care was provided for the guardians at home.
Karl Sallin, a pediatrician at Karolinska University Hospital, told the New Yorker that "another way to give the children hope would be to treat them properly and not leave them lying on a bed with a nasal tube for nine months".
[82] In the spring of 2005, the debate about the apathetic refugee children had grown stronger mobilizing asylum rights movements with organizations, individuals, political parties, and religious communities who all campaigned for a general amnesty.
The Apathetic), hosted a play mocking politicians and medical personnel who suspected malingering by proxy and who disagreed with the idea that the children were traumatized from war.