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Swedish PM says no plans for a freeze on teen deportations

Richard Orange/TT
Richard Orange/TT - news@thelocal.se
Swedish PM says no plans for a freeze on teen deportations
PM Ulf Kristersson meets journalists after a meeting with the Swedish parliament's European Union Affairs Committee. Photo: Pär Bäckström/TT
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Sweden's Prime Minister Ulf Kristersson said on Tuesday that his government would not bend to pressure over teen deportations and impose a temporary freeze, allowing recent high profile cases to stay in the country.

Public pressure is growing on the government to take action to help young people facing deportation to countries like Iran, Egypt and Kosovo, after they turn 18, despite speaking fluent Swedish, with many unable even to complete their upper secondary school education.  

"No, we are not going to bring in a bunch of strange exemptions and stop them right now," Kristersson told journalists at a meeting in Sweden's parliament.

Instead he said the government would seek to solve the problem using the 'safety valve' clause proposed in the conclusions of a recent inquiry on tighter rules for family reunification.

"We will return to this," Kristersson promised. "We are hearing of some cases that I understand are painful, but at the same time, I think one should be careful about drawing too far-reaching conclusions from individual cases."

LISTEN: The battle to end Sweden's teen deportations 

With new teen deportation cases now reported in the Swedish media on an almost weekly basis, the government is under growing pressure to take action.

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The opposition Social Democrats are calling for a temporary freeze and the Green Party, Left Party and Centre Party want to reinstate a law allowing people to stay if there are "exceptionally distressing circumstances", and also to then change the law so young people can receive residency permits as dependants until the age of 21.

Even the government parties are shifting position, with the Liberal Party calling for the implementation of the safety clause to be accelerated, and the Christian Democrats demanding that action be taken to allow well-integrated 18-year-olds and 19-year-olds to stay in Sweden. 

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Anonymous
lol they don't care about sending children alone to dangerous countries, why are we even asking to be sensible about highly skilled adults

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