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| Europe | ||
| Sweden: Foreign Minister warns Iraq of refugee clampdown | ||
| 2007-09-02 | ||
Swedish Foreign Minister Carl Bildt was to meet Iraqi Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki in Baghdad on Sunday for talks expected to be dominated by Stockholm's stricter policies for Iraqi refugees. Bildt, accompanied by Migration Minister Tobias Billström, arrived unannounced in the war-ravaged Iraqi capital on Saturday and went soon after into a meeting with his Iraqi counterpart Hoshyar Zebari. At a press conference afterwards, Bildt warned that Sweden was tightening up its preconditions for granting asylum to Iraqis fleeing the violence ripping their country apart.
"between 80,000 and 120,000 Iraqis" Translation: The government of Sweden has no earthly idea how many Iraqis are living within the kingdom's borders. Sweden receives the largest number of Iraqi refugees in Europe, and Iraqis have become the country's second-largest foreign population after Finns. According to the Swedish immigration service, between January and July this year 10,800 Iraqis requested asylum in Sweden, up from 8,950 for the whole of 2006. There were fewer than 3,000 asylum seekers in 2005. In July, Sweden announced it had adopted stricter policies on whether Iraqi asylum seekers will be allowed to stay in a bid to slow the flood of arrivals. Iraqis from the southern and central regions of the country now have to prove they have been personally threatened to be given residency, the immigration service said. Previously, only northern Iraqis could have their asylum requests dismissed. Immigration service head Dan Eliasson said at the time the change in policy resulted from a recent court finding that found "there is no armed conflict in Iraq, according to the definition from Swedish legislation." If one reads between the lines of the articles published on Swedish online sites, there's plenty of armed conflict (and plenty of casualties) in Sweden, too. "If they are not personally threatened or harassed, they cannot remain in our country," said Eliasson. He said the situation in Iraq does not warrant an automatic decision to grant someone Swedish residency. Those not meeting the test will be asked to return to their country voluntarily with government assistance. They could be forced out if they refuse, he said. Here's a clue, stupid Swedish government officials: The slaves of Allah do not "voluntarily" co-operate with kuff'rs. Prepare to use force, with whatever "force" you have. Considering the state of affairs in Malmo and the Stockholm suburbs, Sven, you're going to need everything you've got. Aside from holding talks with Maliki, Bildt was also on Sunday expected to meet Vice President Tareq al-Hashemi and leaders of Iraq's sharply divided communities, the minister's spokeswoman, Sara Malmgren, said. Interesting. The Kurdish asylum advocates were put through the wringer, but the Sunni and Shi'a had their applications rubber-stamped. | ||
| Posted by:mrp |
| #1 According to the Swedish immigration service, between January and July this year 10,800 Iraqis requested asylum in Sweden, up from 8,950 for the whole of 2006. There were fewer than 3,000 asylum seekers in 2005 Wonder if the immigration service checked to see if there was a corollary of Sunni applications with the failure of their attempts on once again suppress all the others of Iraq? Did the 'surge' happen around the time the others got the edge on the Sunni based terrorism? |
| Posted by: Procopius2k 2007-09-02 15:17 |