First refugees relocated to Sweden under EU plan
Sweden is to officially welcome a first group of refugees as part of a relocation plan by the European Union (EU) to ease the burden of the influx of asylum seekers on frontline states in the bloc.
Swedish media reported on Friday that a group of 19 Eritrean refugees were due to arrive in the country from Italy, the first case of such relocation under a scheme adopted last month by EU interior ministers.
‘Accepting their responsibilities’
EU migration commissioner Dimitris Avramopoulos was in Rome’s Ciampino airport as the refugees boarded a financial police plane destined for Lulea in northern Sweden.
Sweden’s Migration Agency said the refugees will have their asylum applications processed at a center in Boden after their arrival. The group, which included five women, will then be offered a spot at a facility for refugees in the Östersund area in Sweden's Jämtland region, the agency said.
Swedish Migration Minister Morgan Johansson had earlier welcomed the arrival of the refugees as a sign of seriousness in implementing the EU plan for sharing the burden of refugees across Europe.
“This is the first example of this issue of redistribution that we have fought for so much, to make sure that we are all prepared to accept our part of the responsibility,” Johansson said on Thursday while addressing his fellow ministers at an EU summit in Luxembourg.
“Symbolically, it’s very important… It is important now that all countries live up to what we have actually promised each other. We break the ice and make sure that the implementation begins,” he said.
Before the meeting in Brussels last month, the EU member states had agreed to resettle 32,000 people; but a growing flood of refugees crossing the Mediterranean Sea made the 28-nation bloc revise the quotas to include a further 120,000 despite fierce opposition by some eastern European governments.
The EU says the quotas are needed to ease the huge burden on frontline countries like Italy and Greece.
Sweden, a Nordic nation that received more refugees per capita than any other EU country last year, is supposed to take up 5,700 within the framework of the new EU scheme.
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