Record number of unaccompanied minor asylum seekers come to Sweden

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Never before has so many unaccompanied minors been coming into Sweden as there are now. Almost twice as many compared to the first half of 2014. In May, 1,161 children came to Sweden unaccompanied by either their parents or guardian. In June, the number will rise to 1,447, which means that more than one in five asylum seeker is an unaccompanied minor. - A couple of years ago, people thought that there were many there were 300 children in the last month. Now, there are just as many in a week, says Kjell Terje Torvik, business expert at the Swedish Migration Board. The children, who in most cases are boys between 13 and 17 years, mainly come from Afghanistan, Somalia and Eritrea. The number of Afghans has increased steadily since last winter, while the increase of children from the latter two countries has come more suddenly during the spring.

http://ift.tt/1Lizr0O

Sweden has had and continue to have extremely generous welfare policies towards refugees, asylum seekers and migrants. In fact relative to it's population Sweden takes in far more asylum seekers and refugees than most other countries in the EU. Sweden's population is roughly 2% of the EU's yet it takes roughly 20% of the asylum seekers that came into the EU.

Beyond the direct economic costs involved the large influx of people has seriously affected the long-term housing shortage that is in effect in Sweden. Here's a good English article about the problem surrounding the Swedish housing market: http://ift.tt/1Lizr0R

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STOCKHOLM — Tyler Faux thought finding a place to live in New York City was tough. But when Mr. Faux, a 24-year-old New York native, moved here recently to work for one of the city’s fast-growing start-ups, he was in for a rude awakening. Faced with Sweden’s labyrinthine rules on renting apartments and a decades-long waiting list for government housing, Mr. Faux, a Harvard computer science graduate, repeatedly came up empty when hunting for housing — no matter how much he was willing to spend. “In New York, there are ways to find a good apartment if you’re willing to pay,” said Mr. Faux, who eventually signed a short-term lease for a one-bedroom apartment in the center of Stockholm for $1,700 a month, much less than what most New Yorkers pay for a similar apartment. “But in Sweden, that doesn’t exist. It’s difficult to find a place here.”

via International Skeptics Forum http://ift.tt/1GlRNYi