Sweden to Expel 80000 Rejected Migrants — MASS DEPORTATION

Sweden’s Interior Minister said the country could deport up to 80,000 asylum-seekers.

The Finnish government expects to deport around two thirds of the 32,000 asylum seekers that arrived in 2015, Paivi Nerg, administrative director of the interior ministry, told AFP.

In order to make its asylum laws more similar to the rest of Europe, Sweden is also preparing to tighten its rules, for example by giving only temporary residency rather than permanent permits.

On Wednesday, a draft European Commission report said Greece “seriously neglected” its obligations to control the external frontier of Europe’s passport-free Schengen zone.

Prior to that policy reversal, the Scandinavian country was the top European destination for refugees other than Germany. “If that doesn’t work, we will need to have returns backed up by force”, he said.

By 2016, there are about 9.7 million people living in Sweden, majority in large cities such as Stockholm, which has more than 850,000 inhabitants.

“We are talking about 60,000 people but the number could climb to 80,000”, Ygeman was quoted as saying by Swedish media, according to Agence France-Presse.

Last year, around 163,000 people applied for asylum in Sweden, which has taken in the most refugees per capita in Europe.

“It seems as if European countries are in a contest to win the title of ‘least willing to accept asylum seekers, ‘” said the report from the European Network of Ombudspersons for Children, which represents 41 independent children’s rights institutions in 34 European countries. Of the approximately 58,800 cases processed a year ago, 55 percent were accepted.

Greek rescuers found 25 bodies, including those of 10 children, off the Aegean island of Samos, in the latest tragedy to strike migrants risking the unsafe Mediterranean crossing hoping to start new lives in Europe.

The Finnish Government is planning to send 20,000 migrants back to their countries of origin.

After having closed its border for several hours last week, Macedonia again blocked refugees from entering at its southern border with Greece for three hours overnight.

The number of new arrivals has dropped sharply since Sweden’s left-wing government brought in systematic photo ID checks for travellers earlier this month. “This is a very real attempt to appear proactive in allowing those eligible for asylum to stay, while sending a strong message in parallel to would-be migrants that if their claim is not valid they will be returned”, she said.

Swedish officials on Tuesday called for greater security at overcrowded asylum centres a day after the fatal stabbing of an employee at a refugee centre for unaccompanied youths.

National Police Commissioner Dan Eliasson has requested 4,100 additional officers and support staff to help counter terrorism, deport migrants and police asylum facilities.