Gov't tightens requirements for asylum-seekers' family

Prime Minister Fredrik Reinfeldt's Alliance government has recently announced tightened requirements on asylum seekers who want to bring their families to Sweden. "The must stand on their own feet", headlined the Swedish daily Dagens Nyheter. The process of examining details of the stricter requirement for bringing in family members are now in process, such as demand for source of income and housing. According to the government, the work requirement will be crucial.

"It is our responsibility to see that a multiethnic society works better", Reinfeldt was quoted as saying when he presented the directives. "An important ground is the possibility to stand on one's own feet. It is good that many foreign- born today have jobs. In this working line is included the decision to demand that an asylum-seeker has the capacity to provide for his family," he added.

Asylum-seeker should have regular jobs, although not necessarily permanent, in order to bring to Sweden their family members. But those under the refugee convention are exempted from the requirement. Similar demands are now practiced in all European Union member-countries except Sweden and Belgium.

The Christian Social Democrats in the Alliance want to modify the requirement by extending a four-year period for the income-support demand. How the housing requirement will shape up remains in the hands of a current investigation.

Migration Minister Tobias Billström has not given any statistics on how many family dependents wanting to come to Sweden were denied for reasons of failed compliance with the income-support requirement. The Social Democratic government reportedly did the same investigation into the income requirement, but released no views on it. "It is not an unreasonable idea but not the best solution", says Magdalena Streiffert, political refugee spokesman for the opposition Social Democratic party. The Leftist party opposed the new requirement saying that " it is the worst violation of refugees' human rights".