Following the Swedish government’s “paradigm shift” in its immigration policies, the country has seen a 27% drop in asylum applications.
The move is a stark contrast from the country’s 2014 effort to “show tolerance” to migrants, then-Prime Minister Fredrik Reinfeldt said, NBC News reported. “I know that this will cause friction. I therefore call on the Swedish people to show patience and open their hearts.”
That same year, there were 81,301 asylum seekers. By 2015, there were nearly 163,000 asylum seekers.
“It pains me that Sweden is no longer capable of receiving asylum seekers at the high level we do today,” Sweden’s former Prime Minister Prime Minister Stefan Löfven said in 2015. “We simply cannot do anymore.”
According to NBC News, Sweden’s “current center-right government” has implemented stricter immigration policies, as well as proposing initiatives to deport migrants.
For the first time in 50 years, the country has “net emigration,” the Justice Ministry said.
The ministry added, “While the number of asylum seekers in the EU has stabilised at a high level, it continues to decline in Sweden,” explaining there had been a 27% drop in asylum applications this year.
Minister for Migration Maria Malmer Stenergard stated that the “development towards sustainable immigration is necessary to strengthen integration and reduce social exclusion.”
