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Sweden: refugees to be sent back (1)

01 January 1991

Sweden: refugees to be sent back
artdoc August=1993

Sweden has followed EC governments by introducing visa
requirements for refugees arriving from the former Yugoslavia.
The government says that 70,000 arrived from the region in 1992
and 13,000 came in the first quarter of 1993. It blames other
European governments for failing to share the task of taking in
refugees.
The government is adopting the same policy towards refugees
from the former Yugoslavia as that set out in the agreement
reached at the Copenhagen meetings of EC Interior Ministers in
June (see Statewatch vol 3 no 3). This says that people can be
returned to the former Yugoslavia if it is considered `safe' for
them to do so. The first group to be `targeted' in Sweden are the
1,800 Albanians from Kosovo which the government considers `safe'
for them to be returned to. Petrit Abduraman, a spokesperson for
the Albanians from Kosovo, said the government consider them
`economic migrants but every one of us lives in fear of returning
home'.
At one of the refugee camps at Tallnas in northern Sweden with
600 refugees there were a series of racist attacks in July. Two
burning crosses were put on buildings, windows were smashed and
there was an arson attempt on the accommodation block. The
refugees include people from Somalia, Syria and the former
Yugoslavia.
Inter Press Service 2.8.93; Guardian 14.7.93.

Statewatch vol 3 no 4 July-August 1993