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Sweden's child-refugee admissions soar to record heights

Xinhua, August 18, 2015 Adjust font size:

A record number of child refugees applied for asylum in Sweden in July as the country grapples with high admissions, local media reported on Monday.

Some 6,400 minors applied for asylum in the first seven months of the year, with a record 1,890 applications in the month of July, news agency TT reported citing figures from public agency Statistics Sweden.

"There is an extreme number of incoming calls from social workers desperately asking if we have any room," said Madelene Bang, who runs a housing center for children outside of Stockholm.

"They have nowhere to place them. One social worker had called 30 homes without success," she added.

In July Sweden's Migration Agency began to send refugee children to municipalities across the country regardless of their local admissions policies.

Sweden is set to remain the EU's top recipient of refugee children this year, with an expected total of 12,000 in 2015, nearly double the figure from last year.

Most of the children - who are typically boys between 15 and 17 years of age - come from Afghanistan, Eritrea and Somalia.

On Sunday, Swedish Prime Minister Stefan Lofven acknowledged in a speech that refugee admissions were a strain on the country, but that the "effort is undertaken because we want to help people flee war and oppression." Endit