Swedish migration board expects greater numbers of asylum seekers in 2020

By Eva Janssen 10 February 2020



The Swedish Migration Agency is set to present its new migration forecast for 2020 on Monday.
The migration board, as a result of geopolitical and migration trends that are currently unfolding in the Middle East, Africa, and Latin America, expects that more asylum seekers will attempt to come to Sweden in 2020 than did in 2019, Nyheter Idag reports.
“It is likely that the recent increase in migrant movements along the eastern Mediterranean route to Greece, as well as from Latin America to Europe, will continue this year,” says Henrik Holmer, the planning manager and CFO at the Swedish Migration Board.

The migration authority now expects that Sweden will receive close to 23,000 new asylum seekers in 2020, marking an increase of about 1,000 from last year. Most of the new migrants are expected to come from Syria, South and Central America, as well as stateless persons including Palestinians.
In addition to the asylum seekers, Swedish municipalities expect to receive roughly 21,000 new migrants with residence permits in the year ahead.
In November of last year, Voice of Europe reported that eight of Sweden’s ten municipalities were forced to slash funds used to finance basic public services to offset the high cost of taking in large numbers of welfare-dependent migrants.
A couple of months earlier, the Swedish municipality of Bengtsfors was forced to ask the national government for financial aid due to the enormous monetary cost placed onto the backs of Swedish taxpayers to care for “new Swedes” who’ve been taken in, and who rely on social-welfare benefits.


https://voiceofeurope.com/2020/02/sw...ekers-in-2020/