Sweden expects 100,000 asylum seekers this year

Sweden’s Migration Agency says it expects around 100,000 asylum seekers in 2016, fewer than the 163,000 last year, but warns that its estimates remain uncertain given Europe’s struggle to control the migration crisis.

“One can hardly speak of forecasts now. The future depends entirely on the decisions and actions taken at the European Union level and in Sweden,” agency director Anders Danielsson says in a statement.

Sweden, a country of 9.8 million, was one of the EU states with the highest proportion of refugees per capita last year as Europe battles its worst migration crisis since World War II.

The migration agency says it was basing its 2016 planning on a scenario of around 100,000 asylum seekers, but gave an upper estimate of 140,000 should Turkish and European authorities be overwhelmed and if Swedish border controls prove ineffective.

Conversely, if border controls work properly and more restrictive measures are put in place, Sweden might receive as few as 70,000 migrants.

“We need to steer the number down towards 70,000 and preferably even under that,” Immigration Minister Morgan Johansson tells reporters.

“If we see the numbers beginning to rise to a level that we can’t manage, then we’ll have to do more.”

Danielsson tells Swedish news agency TT that the crisis was “definitely not over.”

“The only thing we know is that the pressure on Europe will be at least as strong or even stronger in 2016 than in 2015,” he says.

— AFP