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Sweden's immigration set to beat baseline scenario: agency

Xinhua, December 17, 2015 Adjust font size:

Sweden is set to admit more asylum seekers than expected for 2015, authorities said on Wednesday as the country heads for a record annual intake.

Around 170,000 asylum applicants will have entered the country by the end of the year, a figure double the level seen in 2014 and during a migration wave from eastern Europe in the early 1990s, the newspaper Dagens Nyheter quoted the country's Migration Agency as saying.

Some 3,000 migrants have arrived in Sweden over the past week, a 70-percent decrease since admissions peaked in October, according to Migration Agency figures.

The Swedish government introduced several emergency measures to stem the flow of refugees in the country, including the introduction of temporary residence permits for asylum seekers other than refugees allotted through a United Nations quota system.

While Syrian citizens previously made up the largest group of asylum seekers, they have now been surpassed by Afghan nationals, the agency said.

"That has happened for long enough now for us to call it a break in the trend," the newspaper quoted Magnus Bengtsson at the Migration Agency as saying.

While all Eritrean and Syrian nationals see their asylum applications granted, the success rate of Afghans' applications is at 75 percent, the paper reported. Endit