Swedish prime minister Stefan Löfven has rejected the idea of placing any limit on asylum applications, stating that such a proposal would be in contrary to supporting the right of asylum itself.
The proposal to introduce an upper limit target for asylum applications was put forward by the centre-right Moderate Party.
At first, Löfven and his left-liberal Social Democrats seemed to be on board with limiting the number of migrants able to apply for asylum in Sweden — but this caused conflict with their Green Party partners in the country’s coalition government.
Prime Minister Löfven said he did not support targets or limiting asylum applications and that Sweden would do its part — but that he expected other European Union member-states to do the same, Swedish newspaper Expressen reports.
“We will do our part as a part of the EU. Not more. Because it becomes unsustainable,” Löfven claimed.
Isabella Lövin, an MP for the Greens, said that her party would not support any limits on asylum seeker applications, saying: “We are clear that we will not participate in and implement any policy that we do not support. It is not sustainable for our government partner to settle for anything else.”
According to a former member of the Green Party, the issues has led to a deep division in the coalition government and many within the party say they are ready to leave.
Sweden has granted around 1.2 million migrants residency permits in the last decade, with most of the permits coming from either family reunification or asylum applications.
In October of 2019, Statistics Sweden revealed that mass migration has shifted the demographics of the country to such an extent that now around 20 per cent, or one-fifth, of all Swedes come from migration backgrounds — nearly two million people in total.
Follow Chris Tomlinson on Twitter at @TomlinsonCJ or email at ctomlinson(at)breitbart.com
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