Statistics released by the Swedish Migration Board reveal that the vast majority of migrants who come to Sweden bring no identification documents with them. While the average among all migrants who do not bring ID is 8 out of 10, among some nationalities, such as Afghans and many African countries, nearly 100% fail to provide any.
The statistics were released at the request of Merit Wager, a former Refugee Ombudsman who is a well-known debater on migration topics who is critical of Sweden’s migration policies, according to a report by Samhällsnytt.
The data covers those who applied for asylum in Sweden between 2015, when the current migrant crisis began, and 2019. Data for Syrian migrants was not included, although they formed the largest country of origin for several years during this period.
The Migration Board itself, however, downplayed the problem, indicating that many migrants can prove their identities in other ways besides using documents.
They also claim that some migrants present identity papers at a later time, but they did not offer statistics on this. “One might of course wonder why those who applied for asylum did not show their identity documents when they first arrived, if they still had them,” Wager commented.
