The right-wing government this autumn introduced a "safety valve" aimed at stopping teen deportations – deportations of young adults who arrived in Sweden on a parent's residency permit, but then got too old to be able to receive a permit simply as a dependant – raising the age limit for this group to receive a residence permit based on family ties from 18 to 21.
But the centre-left opposition argues it doesn't go far enough, so they want to widen its scope – a move backed by all the parties in parliament's social insurance committee, which handles immigration matters.
When the "safety valve" was introduced, the agency paused the execution of deportation orders for young adults until the 'valve' came into effect.
But it's not going to halt deportations this time around, at least not for the time being.
"We are waiting until we receive a formal initiative from the committee," the agency's head of press, Ulrika Karlsson, told the TT news agency.
The Social Democrats, Left Party, Centre Party and Green Party have agreed on who should be covered by their new proposed emergency legislation to prevent the deportation of young adults.
To qualify, an individual must have remaining family ties in Sweden and have had their application for a residence permit rejected after July 20th 2021.
The Migration Agency's director general, Maria Mindhammar, received the cross-party proposal following a parliamentary committee meeting a week ago.
However, passing new legislation could take months. In the meantime, the opposition parties had hoped that the Migration Agency would temporarily pause any further deportations of those affected.
That will not happen under current circumstances.
"The committee needs to come forward with something more formal than the public statement that was made," said Karlsson.
She said that the agency requires an exceptionally clear, strictly defined mandate so that officials know precisely what procedures to put on hold.
"That is what we are waiting for," she said.
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