© AFPPolicemen and a group of asylum seekers on the platform at the Swedish end of the bridge between Sweden and Denmark in Malmo on November 12, 2015
Sweden intends to expel up to 80,000 of refugees who crossed its borders last year, saying
they did not qualify for being asylum seekers. "We are talking about 60,000 people but the number could climb to 80,000," Sweden's Interior Minister Anders Ygeman said on Wednesday, adding that Stockholm had called on the police and authorities in charge of refugees to organize their expulsion.
The application of these people have been rejected and their expulsion from the country will be carried out through specially chartered aircraft, he further said, adding that
due to the large number of these people, the completion of the process would take several years.Home to nearly 10 million people, the Scandinavian country accepted over 160,000 asylum seekers in 2015. It has the highest per capita number of asylum seekers among European countries.The EU is facing its worst refugee crisis since World War II with more than a million estimated to have entered the continent in 2015 while a record number is expected for this year.
Comment: Sweden has been one of the more generous countries in regards to the refugee crisis. While no one can blame destitute families for seeking asylum from war-torn neighborhoods and the constant threat of annihilation, there are those who looked at the opportunity to better themselves somewhere else and took advantage. The onus of the refugee/asylum seeker problem should be laid squarely at the feet of those countries that caused it to happen, and who, by the way, are most rigidly refusing refuge to their victims.
Comment: Sweden has been one of the more generous countries in regards to the refugee crisis. While no one can blame destitute families for seeking asylum from war-torn neighborhoods and the constant threat of annihilation, there are those who looked at the opportunity to better themselves somewhere else and took advantage. The onus of the refugee/asylum seeker problem should be laid squarely at the feet of those countries that caused it to happen, and who, by the way, are most rigidly refusing refuge to their victims.