© Johan Nilsson/TT
Refugees arriving in Malmö in 2015.
When US president Donald Trump this past weekend mentioned events in Sweden, he was referring to a TV broadcast about Swedish migration policy. Several claims in the broadcast are questionable, and some downright wrong. Swedish news agency TT has looked at the facts.
1. Claim: In the introduction to the Fox News segment, the presenter says: "In 2016 alone the country accepted more than 160,000 asylum seekers."
Fact: In 2016, nearly 29,000 people sought asylum in Sweden, a very sharp decline compared to 2015, when nearly 163,000 sought asylum, according to the Migration Board. In 2016 there were nearly 112,000 asylum decisions taken, some 67,000 were approved.
2. Claim: "They feel it is their moral duty to open their borders to all and any refugees that want to come to them," says filmmaker Ami Horowitz in the interview with Fox News host Tucker Carlson.
Fact: In November 2015 Sweden sharpened border controls to temporarily include arrivals from within the EU, followed by temporary identity checks in January 2016. Together with actions in other European countries, led to a dramatic decline in the number of asylum seekers (see point 1).
In 2016, asylum policies were tightened in a number of ways, which meant that Sweden went from having the EU's most generous asylum laws to the EU minimum level, according to the Migration Board.
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