Sweden: Force more to return to Afghanistan

Luxembourg – The Swedish government pressed earlier this year for the EU to accelerate the return to Syria. Now it is time for the next country, they believe, and want the EU Commission to develop a plan to send more people without asylum grounds to Afghanistan.
“We must find solutions to make forced returns start working. If someone has come to Sweden and committed a crime, they should be deported,” says the country’s Minister for Migration Johan Forssell, who raises the issue at an EU meeting in Luxembourg on Tuesday.
The EU had a return agreement with Afghanistan until the Taliban’s return to power in 2021. Now Forssell hopes for, for example, joint EU charter flights to send away the increasing number of Afghans who are not considered to have asylum grounds in Europe.
At the meeting, updated EU rules on how returns should be conducted for people without the right to stay are also being discussed. There is disagreement on whether it should be mandatory or voluntary to recognize the deportation decisions of other EU countries.
(October 14)