Prime Minister Stefan Löfven has admitted his nation is close to reaching capacity for migrants, as the national migration bureaux catches up with reality and doubles its migrant forecasts for 2015.
The revision puts the new estimate at 190,000 arrivals expected this year, with an extremely optimistic reduction in numbers expected to arrive in 2016, at 170,000. These changes follow similar steep rises in numbers posted earlier this month by the German government, which has seen theirs grow from 300,000 to 1,500,000 in 2015 in just five months.
Despite the exceptional rapidity with which migrants and so-called refugees are arriving in Sweden, and the prime minister’s admission that the nation is running out of space, there is absolutely no indication from the government they would be taking action to stem the flow.
Popular tabloid paper Afton-Bladet reported earlier this week that introducing border checks to restore some semblance of control had been discussed at governmental level, but ‘sources’ immediately used the state broadcaster to rubbish the idea. Speaking at a migration centre in southern Sweden this week PM Löfven said seeing preparations being made to receive yet more foreigners made him “warm and proud to be prime minister in Sweden”, but he remained silent on the subject of control or restraint.
Overseeing work at Trelleborg Mr. Löfven said told reporters: “[It warms my heart] when I see the work being carried out… the work being carried out is fantastic, but at the same time it expresses what we know, that we are approaching the limit of our reception capacity”.
Sweden has already had to get creative in finding beds for migrants, as the country gets to a point of serious overcapacity. As gymnasiums and school sports halls across the country clear away athletic equipment and are instead filled with camp beds, the government has appealed to private holders of land to do their part to house the new Swedes who arrive in their thousands every week. Breitbart London reported on one such volunteered billet that was turned over to migrant use last week, a 600-bed ski resort in the north of the country.
While the prospect of a free ski holiday would thrill many Swedes, to be sent there out of season will no doubt shock the warm-country travellers who have decided to resettle in Sweden from North Africa and the Levant. The group of migrants sent there will be moved out in late Feburary when the ski season starts, but unluckily for them until that time the resort will receive zero hours of sunlight and could get down to -35°C because it’s 150 miles north of the Arctic circle.
At least at the remote resort, the migrant camp will have no neighbours. Despite the insistence of the government that mass migration comes with no social costs, some Swedes have been taking direct action to prevent migrant camps being established near their homes. Following a pattern established in Germany, buildings being prepared for the reception of foreigners are being torched, preventing arrival but with minimum risk of harm to human life.
Emergency services were called to the fifth burning asylum centre in a week in the early hours of yesterday morning. A former retirement home re-purposed for refugees was largely saved but suffered water and smoke damage from the fire.
Rather than consult with locals about the locations of migrant camps, Swedish authorities are instead making the locations of future facilities secret from locals, reports TheLocal.se.. One social services director said of the secret location of a new facility for 150 people: “After the past week’s fire incidents in southern Sweden I don’t think it’s okay to expose the addresses. The risk is that thugs decide to burn down the premises here as well”.
Follow Oliver Lane on Twitter: Follow @Oliver_Lane or e-mail to: olane@breitbart.com
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