Sweden sees record number of weekly asylum admissions

Sweden saw a record number of asylum seekers enter the country last week, authorities reported Monday.

Some 10,200 migrants sought asylum in Sweden last week, the first time in history the figure exceeds 10,000 in one week, the country's Migration Agency said.

More than 40 percent of the new arrivals had come from Afghanistan, while 27 percent had traveled from Syria, the authority said.

The influx follows several months of extraordinary admission figures and days after Migration Minister Morgan Johansson declared Sweden had "reached the limit" in terms of refugee admissions.

"It will be a difficult fall. It will become more difficult before it gets better. But we can do this as a country," Johansson told public broadcaster Swedish Radio last week.

Sweden welcomed the highest number of asylum seekers per capita in the EU during 2014.

The country will see a record number of total applicants this year, with the number of applications received during the first ten months at 112,000.

Over a quarter of the asylum seekers who entered the country last week were children traveling alone, of whom 81 percent had arrived from Afghanistan.

In late October, the Swedish government struck a deal with several opposition parties to introduce several emergency measures, such as temporary residence permits for some asylum holders and a requirement that all municipalities welcome refugees. Endit