Up to 80,000 asylum seekers whose applications have been rejected face deportation from Sweden, Interior Minister Anders Ygeman said Thursday.
Advertisement
“The first step will be to go with voluntary return, and to create the best conditions for that”.
– The prospect of packing unwilling migrants, even entire families, onto chartered airplanes bound for the Balkans, the Middle East or Africa evokes images that clash with Europe’s humanitarian ideals. An estimated 300,000 people have been killed and millions have been displaced both inside the country and in neighboring nations. They came mostly from Eritrea, Afghanistan, Syria, Iraq and Sri Lanka.
In 2015 Sweden turned down more than 10% of requests because of this rule.
A police officer stands guard at the entrance of a migrant centre in Molndal outside Gothenburg, Sweden, on Monday.
“More than half, 60 percent, should have to return much more quickly. This decision makes us uncomfortable, unhappy and anxious”.
“If a person lacks identity papers the home country might refuse to accept them as they are not sure the person is a citizen”, he told Swedish Radio.
Germany deported 20,000 foreigners previous year. “The returns have worked during some periods, and not so well during others”. We love Sweden too much.
Vice Chancellor Sigmar Gabriel announced that Germany will place Algeria, Morocco and Tunisia on a list of “safe countries of origin” – meaning their nationals would have little chance of winning asylum. Since then, Sweden has been forced to backtrack after the cost of absorbing so many people threatened budget goals and overwhelmed the country’s resources. He also added that he thinks Muslims are not part of the European values.
The Italian navy meanwhile said it had recovered six bodies from a sinking dinghy off Libya – and in Bulgaria, the frozen bodies of two men, believed to be asylum seekers, were found near the border with Serbia. “We don’t know where they are”.
It is “a great challenge”, Ygeman said. He mentioned that deporting migrants would take several years. The agency said it did not know the whereabouts of 7 590 people while police expelled about 2 600 people. About 60,000 did so voluntarily, while 26,000 were deported with coercion and 40,000 absconded.
Swedish officials said yesterday that they are ready to charter planes with Germany as the most cost-effective way to implement the deportation plan. “If there’s a decent illegal labor market the incentive to stay in Sweden will be strong”.
Sweden accepted more than 160,000 asylum seekers previous year.
According to numbers published by the UN Refugee Agency, Europe is now living the worst migration crisis registered since World War II.
Advertisement
Athens/Stockholm-Twenty-four people, including ten children, died on Thursday off the shores of Samos island, according to the latest death toll announced by Greek authorities, after a boat carrying migrants from Turkey to Greece capsized.
