Sweden celebrates huge success in migrant crackdown as number granted asylum hits 40-year low following policy reversal in wake of soaring gang crime and lack of integration
According to the country’s government, the number of migrants granted asylum in Sweden fell to the lowest level in four decades in 2024 – the result of a decade-long crackdown on immigration.
Sweden stunned the world by taking in almost 163,000 asylum seekers during the 2015 migrant crisis – the highest per capita of any EU country.
But after a dramatic policy shift, only 6,250 asylum-related residence permits were granted in the Scandinavian country last year, according to Migration Minister Johan Forssell, who cited new statistics from the Migration Agency.
That figure does not include Ukrainians, who have been granted temporary protection throughout the European Union.
The number of people seeking asylum in Sweden in 2024 was 9,645, the lowest since 1996 and a drop of 42 percent since 2022.
The huge influx of migrants from 2015 made it impossible to effectively integrate all newcomers, Mr Forssell has now said, with insufficient housing, schools and work opportunities.
This prompted successive left-wing and right-wing governments to tighten rules around asylum, with the most harsh immigration policies following the historic 2022 elections.
The center-right minority government of Prime Minister Ulf Kristersson, backed by the anti-immigration Sweden Democrats, introduced a sweeping package of reforms.
Recent measures introduced to reduce migration include granting only temporary residence permits to asylum seekers, stricter family reunification requirements and increasing income requirements for work visas for non-EU citizens.
The current government has also announced plans to offer immigrants $34,000 to leave the country, and to make it easier to deport migrants for substance abuse, association with criminal groups or statements that threaten “Swedish values.”
Mr Forssell, who has overseen the crackdown since taking office in September 2022, told reporters: ‘While the number of asylum seekers is historically low, the number receiving asylum is also low.
‘Today it is believed that three out of four people seeking asylum in Sweden do not have sufficient grounds to obtain a residence permit. So they are not refugees and they should return home,” he said.
Mr Forssell noted that the low number of asylum seekers in Sweden last year was notable, with the number of asylum seekers in the European Union, Norway and Switzerland exceeding one million last year, almost the level of the 2015 migrant crisis.
He said Sweden should continue to keep its numbers low in the coming years.
Forssell told The Times earlier this month: “We are implementing what we describe as a paradigm shift in Swedish migration policy, and we are doing this with a very clear agenda: we want to limit the number of people seeking asylum here in Sweden.”
He explained that this step does not mean that the country does not love migrants or does not understand the situation they face, but because it is “impossible” to take on the task of integration when such a huge influx.
“What happened during the refugee crisis was that all these nice words, all these outspoken policies, collided with a very harsh reality,” Mr Forssell added.
Migrants, mainly from Syria and Iraq, walk north on the E45 highway from Padborg, on the Danish-German border, in an attempt to reach Sweden on September 9, 2015
Security personnel check IDs of travelers from Denmark to Sweden as part of measures to reduce the flow of migrants into the country in 2015
Sweden once considered itself a “humanitarian superpower,” a haven for the war-weary and persecuted, but has struggled over the years to integrate many of its newcomers.
Even after the 2015 migration wave, Sweden held fast to its outspoken ideals, but as gang-related gun violence and bombings skyrocketed, critics warned the country was being stretched to breaking point.
In 2023, Sweden had by far the highest per capita rate in the EU and by December 2024, 40 people had been shot dead in the country – a horrifying number for a European country with just 10 million inhabitants.
These figures represented a 35 percent drop compared to 2022, the deadliest year of the gang wars, when 63 people were shot dead.
Police said gangs have started using social media platforms as “digital marketplaces” to openly recruit children, some as young as 11 years old, to commit murders and bombings in the Nordic region.
Inexperienced teenagers, considered expendable by the gangs, are easier for police to catch than those who order the shootings.
Still, 72 percent of fatal shootings were solved in 2023, compared to just 29 percent in 2022, thanks in part to increasing camera surveillance.
Police said they plan to deploy 2,500 cameras and drones this year, a fivefold increase from five years ago.
The radical right Swedish Democrats took advantage of this discontent and gained ground by highlighting issues related to immigration.
Scandinavian neighbors began issuing warnings about “Swedish conditions,” alarmed by the spillover of gang violence to their own borders.
Even the traditionally centre-left Prime Minister Magdalena Andersson admitted at the time that Sweden did not need more ‘Somalitowns’ or ‘Little Italies’.
Things changed with the 2022 elections, with reforms coming in rapid succession after the Moderates formed a government by striking a deal with the Sweden Democrats, giving the Conservative Party significant influence over crime and immigration policy.
Family reunifications have been tightened, residence permits can be more easily revoked and asylum rights have been reduced to the bare minimum allowed under EU law.
Immigrants who do not qualify for residency are being urged to return home, with some being placed under electronic surveillance or detained in special centers.
Sweden’s immigration policy has undergone a massive shift, abandoning its once frank approach in favor of stricter regulations and a focus on control.
People hold a ‘refugees welcome’ banner as they take part in a demonstration in solidarity with refugees seeking asylum in Europe after fleeing their homeland in Stockholm on September 12, 2015.
The government is now moving away from traditional asylum status and pushing more migrants into the weaker category of ‘subsidiary protection’.
This status, unlike full asylum, requires renewal every 13 months and is only valid for more than three years for those who can prove they are financially independent.
Mr Forssell has made no apologies for the tough approach, and in fairness he revealed that the aim is to return to a pre-1970s immigration model, prioritizing skilled ‘guest workers’ and limiting asylum to only those with indisputable claims.
“We are going back to basics,” he explained, adding that limiting family reunification has already produced results.
The minister also wants to introduce mandatory language and integration tests for anyone seeking Swedish citizenship.
Three teenagers were convicted after a man was murdered while eating at a restaurant south of Stockholm in March. The 17-year-old, who was believed to have fired the fatal shot, was given a prison sentence.
While most European countries adopted such measures years ago, Sweden’s reluctance to follow suit was once a mark of pride, but now even Forssell dismisses the previous policy as absurd.
He called the option of becoming a Swedish citizen if someone does not speak the language or knows little or nothing about the country “stupid.”
The Swedish shift is also reflected in refugee demographics.
Syrians, who made up a third of the 2015 wave, now dominate Sweden’s refugee population, which numbers 111,000.
Many of them are expected to return home as the Assad regime stabilizes, but Mr Forssell estimates that around 100,000 undocumented immigrants remain in Sweden, forming what he calls a “shadow society”.
This shadow society represents one of Sweden’s toughest challenges.
These undocumented people, many of whom have no right of residence, live on the margins, beyond the reach of state systems, but still within their borders.
Mr Forssell is determined to take tough action, especially against those who have committed crimes and still managed to avoid deportation due to legal loopholes.
Currently, even convicted criminals who cannot be deported are allowed to stay in Sweden, where they receive benefits and keep a job.
The minister called this ‘completely unacceptable’ and vowed to put an end to it, defiantly stating that if someone is not granted asylum, he or she must return home.
In the past, Swedish leniency allowed undocumented immigrants to reapply for asylum after four years of living in the shadows, a policy that led to tragic consequences, according to Forssell.
It’s a stark turnaround for a country once celebrated as a haven for refugees.
Ten years ago, when Forssell served as a migration spokesperson, foreign observers would have marveled at Sweden’s utopian image.
The minister said Sweden was once recognized as a country where everything worked perfectly before it erupted into chaos.
But now countries are asking Sweden how they turned the situation around so quickly and became a role model in dealing with a seemingly out-of-control immigration crisis.
And while Sweden may no longer be the superpower of its humanitarian heyday, under Forssell’s leadership the country has developed a new identity – one that prioritizes control, integration and a no-nonsense approach to immigration.