OAN Staff James Meyers
11:45 AM – Monday, September 16, 2024
With the ongoing migrant crisis continuing to increase across the globe, Sweden is offering migrants $34,000 to leave their country.
Advertisement
In saying “we are in the midst of a paradigm shift in our migration policy,” Migration Minister Johan Forssell said the European nation would increase its offer almost 35 times to persuade migrants to go home beginning in 2026, Agence France-Presse (AFP) reported.
The current program in Sweden that entices migrants to leave offers $976 per adult, $488 per child, a cap of $3,903 per family was only used by one migrant in 2023, according to Forssell.
According to Sweden Democrats spokesperson Ludvig Aspling, the appeal would be stronger towards the several hundred thousand migrants who are either jobless or whose incomes were so poor they needed state benefits to survive.
“That’s the group we think would be interested,” Aspling said, AFP reported.
Meanwhile, the Swedish government has been stricter on asylum and immigration rules, and the European country is on track to receive its lowest number of asylum applications since 1997, according to the Swedish Migration Agency.
“People should not come to Sweden, that is the signal from this government,” said Martin Nyman, legal adviser with a Stockholm-based human rights organization, The New York Times reported.
Additionally, Sweden has been a safe-haven for those who have left war-torn countries. Most of its migrants come from countries such as Syria, Afghanistan, Somalia, Iran, and Iraq, AFP reported.
“Sweden’s migration policy is undergoing a paradigm shift,” the government says on its website. “The Government is intensifying its efforts to reduce, in full compliance with Sweden’s international commitments, the number of migrants coming irregularly to Sweden.”
“Labor immigration fraud and abuses must be stopped and the ‘shadow society’ combated. Sweden will continue to have dignified reception standards, and those who have no grounds for protection or other legal right to stay in Sweden must be expelled.”
Currently, Sweden has a population of 10.6 million people and the nation has accepted over 250,000 refugees since mid-2023.
Stay informed! Receive breaking news blasts directly to your inbox for free. Subscribe here. https://www.oann.com/alerts
Advertisements below