The Red Cross and Save the Children urged Sweden on Wednesday not to deport about 150 children seeking asylum and suffering from a rare disorder that leaves them without the will to live.

Children with the little-known Pervasive Refusal Syndrome refuse to move, talk, drink or eat. They must be drip-fed to keep them alive.

Some of the child asylum seekers in Sweden with this condition are as young as three. They come from the Middle East, the Balkans and the former Soviet bloc.

Doctors treating the children say the suffering that forces their families to uproot and the uncertainty of their new status trigger the symptoms. Often the families have little chance of qualifying for asylum.

“I’ve seen war in Iraq and Afghanistan, I’ve been to refugee camps and Aceh after the tsunami and seen children who have lost everything still smiling and running around,” Swedish Red Cross’ president Christer Zettergren told Reuters.

“So what are we doing in the Swedish system that makes these children lose their will to live?” he asked.

In a country known for sheltering victims of persecution and war, which has recently tightened the rules for asylum, there is public debate about the plight of the so-called “apathy kids”.

The Red Cross and Save the Children say immigration rules can be bent “for humanitarian reasons.” The government should set a legal precedent by accepting one child with the syndrome. “These families should get to stay in Sweden because they need protection,” they said in a joint statement.

TV4 television channel showed footage of an Armenian girl of 13 whose parents fled ethnic tension in Azerbaijan. The girl, Elvira, has not spoken for six months and is on a drip.

FAKING IT?

Some psychiatrists wonder if the kids or parents are faking it. Immigration Minister Barbro Holmberg has asked why the condition only exists in Sweden.

But a British expert, Brian Lask, told Swedish TV he had seen it in Britain, the United States, Canada, Australia and Norway.

“The important thing is that people in Sweden understand these children are really sick. It’s odd to think they are faking or that their parents can cure them at home,” he said.

Sweden has already sent some children home. Among three deported from Stockholm last year, one girl was in a wheelchair.

Holmberg says the best way to help is to process asylum applications quickly. She said experts warn against an immigration amnesty as it would encourage more refugees, “placing more children in this difficult situation”.

The charities agree there should not be an amnesty, since it would only apply to children now in Sweden and not protect future victims, said Zettergren at the Red Cross.