Minister: Iraq and Sweden ink deal on repatriation of refugees

Feb 18, 2008, 12:49 GMT

Stockholm - Sweden and Iraq Monday signed a deal that allows Sweden to send back Iraqi nationals whose asylum applications have been rejected, Migration and Asylum Policy Minister Tobia Billstrom said.

Billstrom said 'some 400 Iraq nationals were immediately affected' by the agreement inked in Iraq.

The deal means that failed asylum seekers will no longer remain 'in limbo,' Billstrom told Swedish radio news, referring to the situation where people have been denied permission to stay in Sweden while Iraq has earlier 'not accepted its citizens' to return.

Estimates by the Migration Board suggest that some 11,000 Iraqi nationals were waiting for their asylum applications to be reviewed.

Billstrom said he was confident the review system had sufficient safeguards, adding that he could not rule out that the new agreement with Baghdad might mean fewer asylum seekers from Iraq in future.

In a related matter, the government's system of offering funds to help failed asylum seekers resettle in their native countries seems to have failed, a report said.

The government in August allocated 27 million kronor (4.2 million dollars) for repatriation assistance, covering some 1,300 people, according to the magazine Riksdag & Departement that covers parliament and the government ministries.

Only 46 people have so far applied for the funds, the report said of the system that so far only applies for Iraq and Afghanistan.

The one-time payment was worth up to 20,000 kronor for an individual and 50,000 kronor for a family.