In the midst of violent riots, Magdalena Andersson has acknowledged serious shortcomings in the country’s migrant policy
Segregation in Swedish society has gone “too far” and the integration of immigrants is “too bad”, Prime Minister Magdalena Andersson admitted on Thursday, after the violent riots there earlier this month. The unrest erupted after an anti-Muslim politician, Rasmus Paludan, announced a burning “tour” of the Koran during the holy month of Ramadan.
Dozens of people were arrested during the riots, a school was set on fire and more than 100 police officers were injured, in a country where, during the migration crisis in 2015, around 163,000 migrants applied for asylum – more people per capita than in any other EU nation.
In a comment on these events during a press conference, Andersson said that “segregation has been allowed to go so far” and that it has resulted in the emergence of “parallel societies” in Sweden, which live in “completely different realities”.
In Andersson’s view, integration has been “too poor” because society has been “too weak”, and resources for the police and social services have been insufficient.
“We will need to re-evaluate our previous truths and make tough decisions,” the prime minister, who represents the Swedish Social Democratic Party, which has led the government since 2014, told reporters.
Minister of Integration and Migration Anders Ygeman, who spoke at the same press conference, said in turn that the issue of gang crime cannot be solved without addressing the problem of segregation. Therefore, he announced, the Swedish government plans to introduce further measures to strengthen the police and to ensure better control over the behavior of vulnerable young people.
“Everyone who receives support must also meet certain expectations,” Ygeman emphasized. Sweden’s foreign – born population has doubled in the last two decades and now amounts to two million, which is one – fifth of the entire country’s population. Since the country’s government received a record number of immigrants in 2015, and more than 40% of Swedes considered that figure too high (according to an Ipsos survey in 2016), the country’s government implemented restrictions that made the country’s immigration policy one of the toughest in Europe.
These new measures, together with the state giving the police additional surveillance powers, have aroused criticism from human rights defenders, including Amnesty International.
(RT.com)
Source: sn.dk