Following the Taliban takeover of Afghanistan and a possible wave of migrants fleeing the country, Swedish prime minister Stefan Lofven has vowed there will be no repeat of the 2015 migrant crisis.
The Swedish prime minister stated that his country would not again be accepting massive numbers of migrants as it did in 2015, when the country took in more than 160,000 people — one of the largest numbers per capita of any European country at the time.
“One thing we should be very clear about: we will never go back to 2015,” Lofven said in an interview this week, adding, “Sweden will not end up there again,” Nyheter Idag reports.
“At the moment, of course, the situation in Afghanistan is very serious and the situation has deteriorated rapidly. However, there is also a great deal of uncertainty and respect must be respected because it is very difficult to predict how the situation will develop,” the Swedish leader said.
Afghanistan Fallout Could Lead to Three Million Migrants Trying to Reach Europe https://t.co/ABht283ler
— Breitbart London (@BreitbartLondon) August 11, 2021
The Social Democrat claimed that he would not put Sweden in the same situation as 2015, and that a general amnesty for Afghan migrants in the country was not government policy.
Last month, Sweden halted all deportations to Afghanistan and was criticised for doing so by some governments in the European Union, who argued that the halting of deportations could send a signal that could encourage Afghans to try and get to Europe, knowing they would not be deported.
Sweden also announced that after halting deportations they would be forced to release many of the Afghan migrants who were in detention awaiting their deportation, but claimed that the migrants would still have to check in with police on a regular basis.
Countries across Europe, such as Greece, have expressed concerns that the Afghanistan crisis could lead to a new wave of migrants.
A German humanitarian worker who has worked in Afghanistan for decades claimed that as many as three million migrants may head to Europe in the foreseeable future.
Press Identify Suspected Terrorist Axe Attacker as Afghan Migrant, Three in ‘Life-Threatening’ Condition https://t.co/pZn9hWD2cI
— Breitbart London (@BreitbartLondon) March 4, 2021
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