The Swedish government will be opening the doors to China’s persecuted Uyghur Muslims and allow them to claim asylum in the country.
The decision was made this week by the Swedish Migration Board to ease up the regulations for Uyghur Muslims claiming asylum in Sweden saying that they, along with other persecuted Muslims, would be welcome, Swedish broadcaster Sveriges Radio reports.
Carl Bexelius, Deputy Legal Chief at the Migration Board, expanded on the reasons for the move saying, “What we have seen is that it is rather far-reaching state repression, where one can seize and detain persons without actual criminal charges. You are placed in what is described as retraining camp. This happens arbitrarily.”
The move could have real consequences for Sweden, a country of 10.2 million people by 2018 estimates, due to the fact that the Uyghur population in China is estimated to be up to 11 million people, according to Chinese state statistics.
Over the last year, the Chinese government has severely cracked down on Uyghur Muslims in its western Xinjiang region where up to a million people are believed to have been detained and sent to “re-education” camps across the region.
In 2015, Sweden took in only a fraction of a million people, around 163,000 asylum claims, which amounted to a cost of around 600 billion Swedish kronor (£48.3 billion), or 14 times the annual defence budget.
Swedish Municipalities May Be Forced to Raise Taxes to Pay for Mass Migration https://t.co/3ws3eQdzxJ
— Breitbart London (@BreitbartLondon) March 7, 2018
The costs of the recent migrants have put a strain on some municipalities forcing many to consider raising taxes in order to pay for social services and for the national government to even look into raising the retirement age to help cover new costs.
The costs of housing, integration, and teaching new migrants Swedish, for those who actually attend the classes, is also complimented by the much higher unemployment rate among migrants than native Swedes.
Should only half of the population currently in camps in China make their way to Sweden, it is highly unlikely that the country would be able to manage the numbers alone.
Carl Bexelius at the Swedish Migration Board, however, said he does not think the new move will make more Chinese flee to Sweden saying, “We have relatively few asylum seekers from China and we made the decision not to expel these groups as early as September and we saw no increase then.”
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