Swedish migration authorities have stated that all Syrian asylum seekers currently in the country will be offered permanent residency due to the worsening crisis in the Middle Eastern country.
Sweden becomes the first EU country to make such a decision as the situation regarding Syria intensifies further. The move covers all asylum seekers who have arrived from Syria and received temporary residency for humanitarian protection. Swedish Migration Board Migrationsverket revealed that they will all now be upgraded to permanent residents.
Up until the decision was made, around 50 per cent of asylum seekers from Syria had received permanent residency, with the rest being granted three-year residency permits.
Migrationsverket makes its assessment based on whether a person’s need for protection is classed as individual or general. As the conflict in Syria has deteriorated to an extreme level with no solution likely in the near future, the agency has judged the security situation as permanent.
This means that around 8,000 Syrians who have already received temporary residency will now have the chance to stay in Sweden permanently. In addition, they will be allowed to have their families join them.
The Syrian Arabian Cultural Association of Sweden’s vice chairman Malek Laesker welcomed the move, but said it could also create problems. He explained that Sweden being the first EU country to allow the refugees to stay permanently is on the whole a good thing, but that it could increase the level of people-smuggling.
He went on to say that it will increase the ongoing debate about the Scandinavian country’s immigration policies. He noted that there is also a crisis surrounding the country’s immigration policies, and that he hopes the politicians can solve it the best way possible.