Sweden celebrates big success in migrant crackdown as quantity granted asylum hits 40-year low following coverage reversal in wake of hovering gang crime and lack of integration

The number of migrants granted asylum in Sweden dropped to the lowest level in 40 years in 2024, according to the country’s government – the result of a decade-long crackdown on immigration.

Sweden stunned the world by taking in nearly 163,000 asylum seekers during the 2015 migrant crisis – the highest number per capita of any EU country.

But following a dramatic policy reversal, just 6,250 asylum-related residence permits were granted in the Scandinavian country last year, according to Migration Minister Johan Forssell, who cited fresh statistics from the Migration Agency.

That figure does not include Ukrainians, who have been granted temporary protection throughout the European Union.

The number of people who applied for asylum in Sweden in 2024 was 9,645, the lowest since 1996 and down by 42 percent since 2022.

The huge influx of migrants in 2015 onwards made it impossible to effectively integrate all of the new arrivals, Mr Forssell has now said, with insufficient housing, schools and work opportunities.

This prompted successive left and right-wing governments to tighten rules around asylum, with the most hardline immigration policies coming in following the landmark 2022 election.

Prime Minister Ulf Kristersson’s centre-right minority government, propped up by the anti-immigration Sweden Democrats, brought in a sweeping package of reforms.

Recent measures introduced to reduce migration include the granting of only temporary residence permits to asylum seekers, tighter family reunification requirements, and raising income requirements for work visas for non-EU citizens.

The current government has also announced plans to offer immigrants $34,000 to leave the country, and to make it easier to expel migrants for substance abuse, association with criminal groups or statements threatening ‘Swedish values’.

Mr Forssell, who has overseen the crackdown since he took up his office in September 2022, told reporters: ‘While the number of asylum seekers is historically low, the number being granted asylum is also low.

‘Today, three out of four people seeking asylum in Sweden are not considered to have sufficient grounds to be granted residency. They are therefore not refugees, and they must return home,’ he said.

Mr Forssell noted that Sweden’s low levels stood out, with the number of asylum seekers in the European Union, Norway and Switzerland topping one million last year, nearing the level seen during the 2015 migrant crisis.

He said Sweden would need to continue to keep its numbers down in the coming years. 

Forssell told The Times earlier this month: ‘We are implementing what we describe as a paradigm shift in Swedish migration policy, and we are doing this with a very outspoken agenda that we want to limit the number of people seeking asylum here in Sweden’.

He explained that the move does not mean that the country does not like migrants, or understand the situation they face, but because it is ‘impossible’ to manage the task of integration when there is such a huge influx each year.

‘What happened during the refugee crisis was that all these very nice words, all this open-heart policy, met a very tough reality,’ Mr Forssell added.

Sweden once considered itself to be a ‘humanitarian superpower’, a haven for the war-weary and persecuted, but over the years it has struggled to integrate many of its newcomers.

Even after the 2015 migration wave, Sweden held onto its open-hearted ideals, but as gang-related gun violence and bombings soared, critics warned that the country was being stretched to breaking point.

In 2023, Sweden had by far the EU’s highest rate of per capita and by December 2024, 40 people had been shot dead in the country – a chilling number for a European country of only 10 million people.

These figures represented a 35 per cent decrease compared to 2022, the most lethal year of the gang wars, when 63 people were shot dead. 

Police said gangs have begun using social media platforms as ‘digital marketplaces’ to openly recruit children, some as young as 11, to commit murders and bombings across the Nordic region.

Inexperienced teenagers, seen as expendable by the gangs, are easier for police to catch than those ordering the shootings.

Still, 72 per cent of deadly shootings were solved in 2023, compared to just 29 per cent in 2022, helped in part by surging camera surveillance. 

Police said they aimed to employ 2,500 cameras and drones this year, a five-fold increase from five years ago.

The radical right-wing Sweden Democrats capitalised on this discontent, gaining ground by highlighting problems linked to immigration.

Scandinavian neighbours began issuing warnings about ‘Swedish conditions,’ alarmed by the spillover of gang violence into their own borders.

Even the traditionally centre-left Prime Minister Magdalena Andersson conceded at the time that Sweden didn’t need more ‘Somalitowns’ or ‘Little Italies’. 

Things changed with the 2022 election, with reforms coming thick and fast after the Moderates formred a government by striking a deal with the Sweden Democrats, giving the conservative party significant influence over crime and immigration policies.

Family reunifications have been tightened, residency permits are more easily revoked, and asylum rights have been slashed to the bare minimum allowed under EU law.

Immigrants who do not qualify for residency are being urged to return home, with some placed under electronic surveillance or confined to special centres.

Sweden’s immigration policy has undergone a seismic shift, abandoning its once open-handed approach in favour of stricter rules and a focus on control. 

The government is now steering away from traditional asylum status and pushing more migrants into the weaker ‘subsidiary protection’ category. 

This status, unlike full asylum, requires renewal every 13 months and only extends beyond three years for those who can prove they are financially independent.

Mr Forssell has made no apologies for the hardline approach, and speaking candidly, he revealed that the goal is to return to a pre-1970s immigration model, prioritising skilled ‘guest workers’ and limiting asylum to only those with indisputable claims. 

‘We’re going back to basics,’ he explained, adding that restricting family reunification has already delivered results. 

The minister also wants to introduce mandatory language and integration tests for anyone seeking Swedish citizenship.    

While most European nations adopted such measures years ago, Sweden’s reluctance to follow suit was once a badge of pride, but now, even Forssell dismisses the previous policy as absurd.

He blasted the ability of becoming a Swedish citizen if an individual can not speak the language or known little to nothing about the country as ‘stupid’. 

Sweden’s shift is also reflected in its refugee demographics. 

Syrians, who made up a third of the 2015 wave, now dominate Sweden’s refugee population, numbering 111,000. 

Many of them are expected to return home as the Assad regime stabilises, but Mr Forssell estimates that some 100,000 undocumented immigrants remain in Sweden, forming what he calls a ‘shadow society.’

This shadow society represents one of Sweden’s toughest challenges. 

These undocumented individuals, many with no right to stay, exist on the margins, out of reach of the state’s systems but still within its borders. 

Mr Forssell is determined to crack down, especially on those who have committed crimes yet managed to avoid deportation due to legal loopholes.

Currently, even convicted criminals who can’t be deported are allowed to remain in Sweden, receiving benefits and holding jobs. 

The minister called this ‘completely unacceptable’ and vowed to end it, defiantly stating that if an individual is not granted asylum, then they must return home.

In the past, Sweden’s leniency allowed undocumented immigrants to reapply for asylum after four years of living in the shadows, a policy Forssell says led to tragic consequences. 

It’s a stark turnaround for a nation once celebrated as a haven for refugees. 

A decade ago, when Forssell served as a migration spokesman, foreign observers would marvel at Sweden’s utopian image.

The minister said Sweden was once recognised as a country where everything worked perfectly before it erupted into chaos.

But now, nations are asking Sweden how they flipped the situation so quickly, becoming a role model in handling a seemingly out-of-control immigration crisis. 

And although Sweden may no longer be the superpower of its humanitarian heyday, under Forssell’s leadership, it has carved out a new identity – one that prioritises control, integration, and a no-nonsense approach to immigration.