The president of the Swedish Association for Home Education (ROHUS) Jonas Himmelstrand has been forced to leave his native Sweden for Finland after authorities fined him and his wife for choosing to educate their children at home.

Mr Himmelstrand, an international speaker who took part at an Iona Institute conference, ‘Women, Home and Work’ last year, also feared that social workers might seize their children in response to their decision to homeschool them.

The Swedish Parliament passed a law all but banning homeschooling in 2010. Mr Himmelstrand had fought for many years for the right to homeschool his children.

According to the news website New American, local school officials reported the Himmelstrand family to the social services in November of last year when their 7-year-old son did not show up at the local school. Mr Himmelstrand — like many other homeschoolers in Sweden — was forced to meet with local officials to explain himself.

“It was just harassment,” he said. “But we were not going to take any chances with anything…. You never know with Swedish social authorities. You never know.”

Another homeschooling family, the Johanssons, was split up by the authorities in 2009 over the issue of home education as they attempted to leave for India.

Himmelstrand went to the social services and asked the social services if they would guarantee that his family could remain in Sweden safely. They said no, matter-of-factly stating that to homeschool safely, the family would probably have to leave country.

The following month, the family received a letter explaining that the authorities had decided to impose a fine of about $26,000 – $13,000 per parent. “At that point we kind of felt like, are these people crazy?” Himmelstrand told The New American in a telephone interview. “Don’t they realise that would ruin our family?”

The Himmelstrands responded with a letter asking officials to clarify whether they intended to split up their family based on this political principle. The family also told authorities that they would leave as exiles before allowing themselves to be destroyed by the punitive fines.

The local government responded with a letter imposing yet another fine. Mr Himmelstrand said this was the last straw.

The family moved promptly thereafter, not making the news public until everyone was safely beyond the reach of Swedish officials. Mr Himmelstrand said he did not want to wait around to find out what the local government’s next move might be.

They moved to Aland, a Swedish-speaking island off the coast of Finland.

“They’ve given us a very clear reason to leave the country — they’ve given us a very strong message,” Himmelstrand explained. “It’s shameful for Sweden. It’s really shameful for Sweden.”

At least a quarter of all Swedish homeschooling families have already fled the nation — seeking the freedom to homeschool their children in Canada and New Zealand, as well as other Nordic nations.

However, the battle against the Swedish policy will go on, Himmelstrand says.

In addition to this campaign, Himmelstrand has been at the forefront of drawing international scrutiny to family policy generally in Sweden. He has spoken about the issues at conferences around the world, also serving as the founder of the family-policy oriented think tank, Mireja Institute, and working as the family research expert for the Swedish pro-family organisation Haro. He is the chairman of the committee organising the world’s first global home education conference, too.

A global coalition of homeschooling groups has been fighting the Swedish government’s campaign against homeschoolers for years. The U.S.-based Home School Legal Defence Association (HSLDA), for example, is actively working with the beleaguered Swedes.

But despite the government’s campaign to eradicate home education, not a single home-schooled child has been enrolled long-term in a government school because of the new ban.