Sweden to set up repatriation centres for migrants denied asylum

Stockholm, June 30 The Swedish government has announced that migrants who have been denied asylum will be housed at repatriation centres.

"The Swedish Migration Agency registered 11,580 return cases last year, but only 39 per cent of those who received a decision that they must leave Sweden did so voluntarily," Xinhua news agency quoted Minister for Migration Maria Malmer Stenergard as saying at a press conference on Thursday.

"This is far from enough and it is about time that a no means 'no'," Malmer Stenergard said.

The repatriation centres are meant to send a signal that the asylum process has ended and to ensure that more of those who have been denied asylum return to their countries of origin.

The centres will also be situated close to airports to facilitate the repatriation process.

Thursday was not the first time that the incumbent government, formed in October 2022, presented a new asylum policy.

In January, it announced a campaign aimed at discouraging asylum seekers without a genuine reason from coming to the country.

"The main objective is to inform about Swedish migration policy so that fewer people will come here," Malmer Stenergard said at the time.

Less than a month after the new government was formed, it said that asylum seekers should live in housing provided by the migration agency, as opposed to the current system which allows them to find their accommodation.

At Thursday's press conference, Malmer Stenergard said that those that have been refused asylum will be required to live at the repatriation centres as soon as the current legislation is changed.