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Local Sweden
2 days ago
- Business
- Local Sweden
Sweden could send up to 600 convicted criminals to Estonian prisons
A new agreement between Sweden and Estonia means that up to 600 criminals convicted in Sweden could serve time in prisons in Estonia, in what Prime Minister Ulf Kristersson has described as a "historic" deal. Advertisement The new agreement, which is designed to partly solve Sweden's problem with a lack of prison space, is the result of negotiations which began this spring. The two countries have agreed that Sweden can rent 400 cells in a prison in Tartu – the entire prison – in the southeastern part of the country, which would house up to 600 convicted criminals. Prisoners eligible to be placed in Estonia would be men over the age of 18 who are convicted for crimes in Sweden. Both Swedish and foreign criminals would be eligible, with the exception of Estonian citizens. Under the deal Sweden would only be able to send prisoners who do not pose a major security risk, roughly equivalent to convicted criminals classed at security level two in Sweden, on a three-point scale. Staff in the prison in Tartu would be Estonian, but they would be able to speak English, and prisoners would have the right to interpreters. Estonian laws would apply, but some rules have been put into place to make sure that prisoners in Estonia have the same rights they would have had in Sweden. This includes rules around occupational activities, visitational rights and communication with the outside world. Advertisement The Swedish Prison and Probation Service would also have staff on site to assist with training Estonian staff. Sweden would also save money by sending prisoners to Estonia. According to Swedish Justice Minister Gunnar Strömmer, an Estonian prison stay would cost the state around €8,500 a month per person, compared to €11,500 per month in Sweden. A government-appointed inquiry which presented its findings late last year concluded there were no barriers in the Swedish constitution or European conventions which would bar it from renting prison spaces abroad. The deal requires a parliamentary vote with a three quarter majority before Sweden can start sending prisoners to Estonia. This means that the government and its Sweden Democrat allies will need the support of the Social Democrats, currently in opposition, to approve it. The law has a suggested implementation date of July 1st, 2026.
Local Sweden
26-05-2025
- Politics
- Local Sweden
Swedish government pushes forward with bid to revoke gang criminals' citizenship
Sweden's conservative-led government has appointed a new inquiry to look into how dual citizens involved in gang crime could have their Swedish citizenship revoked. Advertisement The inquiry follows a committee which in January recommended changing the constitution to make it possible to revoke Swedish citizenship for dual citizens who commit crimes which threaten Sweden's security – but takes the committee's conclusions one step further. The committee, made up of members of all eight parties, proposed that the absolute right Swedish citizens have to retain their citizenship should be limited to allow the citizenship of dual citizens to be revoked in three situations: If they are found guilty of crimes which pose a serious threat to Sweden's security, such as espionage, terrorism, sabotage, treason, or rebellion If they are found guilty of crimes covered by the International Criminal Court, such as genocide, crimes against humanity, war crimes and crimes of aggression If they received their citizenship on false grounds, either through supplying false documents or information or by bribing or threatening government officials The committee however stopped short of recommending stripping citizenship from people found guilty of 'system-threatening crimes' within the framework of gang crime. But the three parties in government – the Moderates, Christian Democrats and Liberals – and their far-right Sweden Democrat allies, have instructed the new inquiry to also look into measures for revoking dual citizens' Swedish nationality over such crimes. 'We're choosing to proceed with this work and are hoping for broader support in parliament,' Migration Minister Johan Forssell told a press conference on May 26th. Anders Ygeman, migration spokesperson for the centre-left Social Democrats, told The Local in January that his party had refused to support the government parties' approach at the time because it was framed so loosely that it "could be used for situations which were impossible to predict beforehand". "If the government wants to widen the scope, they need to be much more precise and you have to be able to predict the consequences," he said. Advertisement However, Forssell argued at the press conference that widening the scope was necessary to crack down on gang criminals taking advantage of a Swedish passport to travel and avoid getting deported while carrying out crimes that seriously threaten the vital interests of the state. He cited police statistics estimating that 1,100 people who are currently active members of criminal networks have dual citizenship. The new inquiry will also look into the general practicalities of how citizenships could be revoked. It is set to present its results by March 20th 2026. Changing one of Sweden's constitutional laws requires the bill to be passed by the Swedish parliament twice, once either side of a general election. As the 2026 election will be held in September and a new government is unlikely to be in place until October or November, in practice this means that any change to the constitution would not come into force until 2027 at the earliest.
Local Sweden
14-05-2025
- Politics
- Local Sweden
Sweden's security checks force Migration Agency to halt approvals of citizenship applications
Sweden's processing rate of new citizenships has more than halved after new security checks were introduced, with the Migration Agency (Migrationsverket) unable to approve applications in standard cases for over a month. Advertisement In the month of April, Sweden granted around 1,200 out of 3,000 processed citizenship applications – in other words, almost 60 percent of applications were rejected. Normally, the rejection rate is around 20-30 percent. A Migration Agency spokesperson explained to The Local that because it hasn't yet fully set up its routines for the in-person identification required of applicants as of the start of April, it has not been able to approve any 'standard' citizenship applications. The majority of cases concluded in April were instead clear-cut rejections, which explains the high rejection rate. Those that were approved were mainly in so-called 'citizenship by notification' cases, such as children and Nordic citizens who have an easier route to citizenship. Meanwhile, the number of processed citizenship applications fell by more than half in April compared to March, according to Migration Agency figures obtained by The Local. And as we have previously reported, the number of granted citizenships plummeted by over 70 percent between March and April. More detailed citizenship statistics are expected to be available from May 15th. In October 2024, the Migration Agency predicted that it would conclude 87,000 applications each year in 2025 and 2026, thanks to increased staff at the agency – a first step towards reducing the heavily criticised long waiting times for Swedish citizenship. But the new security checks imposed by the government forced the agency in April to lower its previous estimate by more than a quarter: to 64,000 concluded citizenship cases in 2025 and 65,000 in 2026. Advertisement The security checks, which were introduced on April 1st, involve applicants, future and present, answering a detailed set of additional background questions, as well as having to verify their identity in person. The requirements for gaining citizenship have not changed. It was initially reported there would be exceptions from the in-person identification for certain nationalities with biometric passports, but a spokesperson last month told The Local that those haven't yet been implemented. It is not yet clear when the Migration Agency's new system for in-person checks will be in place, allowing the agency to resume processing these cases. The security checks came on the orders of the government and its far-right Sweden Democrat allies, who instructed the Migration Agency to take 'forceful measures' to prevent people who pose a threat to security or use a fake ID from being granted citizenship. Experts had previously guessed that security checks would be tightened as a pretext of slowing down the awarding of new citizenships until the reforms planned for 2026 are in place – a slowdown strongly hinted at by the government in an opinion piece in the DN newspaper in November. Advertisement In March, Sweden's National Audit Office criticised both the Migration Agency and the government over "unreasonably" long processing times which allow thousands of applications to "lie dormant". According to the Migration Agency, 75 percent of adult applicants whose cases were concluded "recently" had to wait 23 months, but waiting times have in the past tended to vary widely, from a few weeks to many years. The full extent to how waiting times will be affected by the new security checks is not yet clear. *Note that the data for the two graphs in the article was sourced on slightly different dates, so although they roughly add up, they are not directly comparable
Local Sweden
07-05-2025
- Politics
- Local Sweden
New citizenship statistics reveal impact of Sweden's security checks
Brand new figures from the Swedish Migration Agency suggest that the awarding of citizenships has slowed down radically since the government ordered it to impose stricter security checks on applicants at the start of April. Advertisement The number of granted citizenships plummeted by 74 percent between March and April, from 4,769 to 1,229. The Migration Agency made a decision on 3,009 citizenship applications in April. An agency spokesperson wasn't immediately able to share the number of concluded citizenship cases in March, but via the Wayback Machine we found that it concluded 7,915 cases in February. So far this year, 24,844 citizenship cases have received a decision, which means that prior to April 1st, the Migration Agency processed on average around 7,000 cases per month – in other words, there was also a sharp decline in the number of concluded cases in April. "It's hard to draw any conclusions based only on the figures for the month of April, but in our forecast which we published on April 25th 2025, we estimated that the measures to increase security in the processing of citizenships will affect the pace of decision-making," the Migration Agency spokesperson told The Local. "That's a reason for why we, compared to previous estimates, lowered the forecast for the number of concluded citizenship cases this year and the coming years. The lowered forecast is also due to, among other things, our work on resolving the oldest cases." More detailed statistics on citizenship applications are expected to be available from May 15th. In October 2024, the Migration Agency predicted that it would conclude 87,000 applications each year in 2025 and 2026, thanks to increased staff at the agency – a first step towards reducing the heavily criticised long waiting times for Swedish citizenship. But as the spokesperson said, the new security checks forced the agency in April to lower its previous estimate by more than a quarter: to 64,000 concluded citizenship cases in 2024 and 65,000 in 2026. The security checks that were introduced on April 1st involve applicants, future and present, answering a detailed set of additional background questions, as well as having to verify their identity in person. Advertisement They came on the orders of the government and its far-right Sweden Democrat allies, who instructed the Migration Agency to take 'forceful measures' to prevent people who pose a threat to security or use a fake ID from being granted citizenship. Experts had previously guessed that security checks would be tightened as a pretext of slowing down the awarding of new citizenships until the reforms planned for 2026 are in place – a slowdown strongly hinted at by the government in an opinion piece in the DN newspaper in November. In March, Sweden's National Audit Office criticised both the Migration Agency and the government over "unreasonably" long processing times which allow thousands of applications to "lie dormant". According to the Migration Agency, 75 percent of adult applicants whose cases were concluded "recently" had to wait 23 months, but waiting times have in the past tended to vary widely, from a few weeks to many years. The full extent to how waiting times will be affected by the new security checks is not yet clear.
Local Sweden
25-04-2025
- Politics
- Local Sweden
Sweden's Migration Agency cuts citizenship forecast by 26 percent due to security checks
Hampered by new security rules, Sweden's Migration Agency has sharply lowered its predictions for the number of citizenship applications it will process this year and next. Advertisement In October 2024, the Migration Agency predicted that it would conclude 87,000 applications each year in 2025 and 2026, thanks to increased staff at the agency – a first step towards reducing the heavily criticised long waiting times. But new security checks ordered by the government earlier this year are now forcing the agency to lower its previous estimate by more than a quarter: to 64,000 concluded citizenship cases in 2024 and 65,000 in 2026. 'The changes that have been decided mean that the review [of applications] will take more time and that productivity, that is the number of cases resolved per resource, will be lower than before,' reads the new forecast, which was published on April 25th. Migration Agency chief Maria Mindhammar said it was 'difficult to say with certainty' how the new measures, in place as of April 1st, would affect processing times. 'At the same time, additional resources are also being added, especially to strengthen the work with the security aspect and older cases,' she said in a statement, adding that these resources were meant to address concerns raised by the National Audit Office in a report in March, which slammed the agency over 'unreasonably' long waiting times. As the forecast notes, it is not clear to what extent these additional resources will offset the increased waiting times caused by the tighter security checks. But if it's correct, it would mean a 16 percent drop in the number of citizenship cases processed compared to 2024. The forecast doesn't take into account the citizenship reforms scheduled for June 2026 – including language tests and longer qualifying times – as it only considers new legislation once there's a bill or a draft proposal that has been sent to the Council on Legislation for consultation. But the original inquiry into the citizenship reforms estimated that they would affect both the number of applications and the rate at which the agency is able to process them, and Mindhammar confirmed the agency needed to "prepare" for the reforms. Advertisement The security checks that were introduced in April involve applicants, future and present, answering a detailed set of additional background questions, as well as having to verify their identity in person. They come on the orders of the government and its far-right Sweden Democrat allies, who instructed the Migration Agency to take 'forceful measures' to prevent people who pose a threat to security or use a fake ID from being granted citizenship. Experts had previously guessed that security checks would be tightened as a pretext of slowing down the awarding of new citizenships until the reforms planned for 2026 are in place – a slowdown strongly hinted at by the government in an opinion piece in the DN newspaper in November.
