Sweden to expel asylum seekers

STOCKHOLM

Sweden said it expects to expel up to 80,000 migrants whose asylum requests will likely be rejected, as another 18 people including children drowned off Greece on Thursday in a desperate bid to reach Europe.

As the continent grapples with efforts to stem a record flow of migrants, Swedish Interior Minister Anders Ygeman said the mass expulsions of people who arrived in the Scandinavian country last year would require the use of specially chartered aircraft and be staggered over several years.

“We are talking about 60,000 people but the number could climb to 80,000,” he told Swedish media, adding that police and migration authorities had been tasked with organising the scheme.

Of the 58,800 asylum requests handled by Swedish migration authorities last year, 55 per cent were accepted.

Many of those requests were, however, submitted in 2014, before the large migrant flow began.

Ygeman said he used the 55 per cent figure to estimate that around half of the 163,000 asylum requests received in 2015 would likely be rejected.

Sweden, a country of 9.8 million, is among the European Union states with the highest proportion of refugees per capita.

More than one million people travelled to Europe last year — the majority of them refugees fleeing conflict in Syria, Iraq and Afghanistan — in the continent’s worst migration crisis since World War II.

Most cross by boat from Turkey to Greece and the United Nations says more than 46,000 people have turned up on the European Union member’s beaches so far this year, while 170 people died making the dangerous journey.