The politics of sending asylum seekers home

Sweden may still have a reputation for holding its doors wide open for Iraqi asylum seekers. If this was once the case it certainly is not now, as the Boston Globe has noticed. The reason: Swedish courts have decided that there is no civil war in Iraq, making it possible to turn away more Iraqi asylum seekers. Last year, 72 percent of Iraqi asylum seekers were allowed to stay. This year, the figure is just 43 percent. The rise in the number of rejections may ostensibly be down to the perceived improvement in Iraq - the court said that the violence there did not meet the internationally accepted definition of an ‘internal armed conflict’. What is unescapable is that many people who arrived in Sweden from tragic circumstances in Iraq, Afgahnistan and Somalia are being sent back to live in grim conditions or are staying here... [read full story]