Migration minister proposes letting teenagers finish studies before deportation, 8-month-old baby to be deported alone to Iran, and other news from Sweden on Monday.
Migration minister proposes letting teenagers finish studies before deportation
Swedish Migration Minister Johan Forssell has made a small concession on the teen deportation issue, saying that teenagers who lose the right to live in Sweden should be allowed to stay in Sweden long enough to graduate from upper secondary school.
Speaking on the long Saturday interview on Swedish radio broadcaster SR, Forssell said that the government has asked for a proposal that could give the affected group more time to complete high school.
“Students who attend high school should be able to attend high school and complete it,” he said in the interview.
Teen deportations, where people who turn 18 are ordered to leave Sweden even though their families are allowed to stay, have become a big issue in Sweden.
Swedish vocabulary: gymnasium – upper secondary school
Government asks development agency to use aid to help deportations
Sweden’s government has asked the Swedish International Development Agency (Sida) to use aid and the threat of withdrawing it to help the government’s efforts to encourage countries to accept citizens deported from Sweden.
“We should find ways to cooperate with countries for efficient return operations,” Hanna Hellquist, the agency’s director general, said about the orders she has received from the government for 2026.
The instructions also request that the agency work more closely with Sweden’s trade agencies and its foreign office, so that aid is an integrated part of Swedish foreign policy.
Swedish vocabulary: effektiv – efficient
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Outrage after Migration Agency orders 8-month-old baby to be deported to Iran
The Swedish Migration Agency has ordered an 8-month-old baby, who was born in Sweden, to be deported to Iran alone, generating outrage in the Swedish media over the weekend.
The Migration Agency ruled that as the boy’s mother had residency through the track change or spårbyte rule at the time he was born, the residency he received as a dependent was no longer valid.
The boy’s mother and father have since received residency on other grounds, meaning the 8-month-old has been ordered to leave Sweden alone.
The Migration Agency ruled that the boy did not qualify for a permit under the “particularly distressing circumstances” safety clause.
Swedish prime minister Ulf Kristersson said that the decision, “sounds unreasonable”.
“We do not deport small children separately from their parents,” he said.
“Every thinking person realizes that a baby cannot leave the country on its own,” wrote Ebba Busch, leader of the Christian Democrats.
Swedish vocabulary: orimlig – unreasonable
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Migration Agency chief to be grilled by parliament on teen deportations
The Migration Agency’s director general, Maria Mindhammar, has been called to the Swedish parliament’s Committee on Social Insurance to be grilled on how the law could be changed to reduce the problem of teen deportations.
“It’s not a reasonable way to treat people,” Niels Paarup-Petersen, from the Centre Party, told the Aftonbladet newspaper.
He wants Mindhammar to reveal how long processing times are and what the Migration Agency needs to be able to stop the deportations of teenagers as quickly as possible.
Swedish vocabulary: handläggningstider – processing times