By: V4 Agency
After applying for and receiving asylum, many migrants flew back to their home country for the holidays, all paid for by their host country.
Following the foreign ministry’s orders, the Swedish Armed Forces have recently flown more than 1,100 people to Sweden from Afghanistan. Among the “passengers”, there were several Afghans who have – citing persecution – already applied for and received asylum from Sweden, and then decided to travel back home to spend their “holidays”, despite the ministry’s warning.
According to Swedish press reports, the costs of transport and related security measures were rather high. The papers also recalled that these expenses were borne by the Swedish taxpayers, even despite FM Anne Linde’s earlier statement, in which she warned that those who fly back to Afghanistan in defiance of the foreign ministry’s advice will have to cover their own costs.
Most recently, Ms Linde said that although it’s still unclear how the costs will be calculated, Afghans traveling back to Sweden will not have to pay a significant amount. It will be “just a little bit more expensive than a normal air ticket”, she said.
Addressing his question to FM Linde in parliament, MP Sven Olof Sallstrom has asked whether it’s feasible for people who have received asylum from Sweden to spend their holidays in the country they had fled. Instead of providing a straightforward answer, Sweden’s foreign minister simply expressed her outrage, saying what Mr Sallstrom had described was merely an assumption and accusing him of “trying to throw s**t at people.” Ms Linde stressed that those possessing Swedish residence permits have every right to request assistance from the foreign ministry when spending their holidays in their home countries.