Introduction – An honest asylum policy

Sweden does not have the opportunity to help all refugees in the world, therefore we have to prioritize who we should help. Today, a large part of the prioritization is carried out by the fact that asylum can only be sought on the spot in Sweden. As the purpose of asylum immigration is to show solidarity with people who have no choice but to flee, it is of the utmost importance that the people who are most vulnerable and have the least chance of surviving deportation are the ones to be prioritized, rather than the who have the ability to get to Sweden. Today, Sweden pretends that everyone has the opportunity to get asylum here, while at the same time we take political measures to limit in practice how many people seek asylum in Sweden. The Pirate Party wants to see an honest policy, where we are open about how many asylum seekers can get a residence permit in Sweden each year – at the same time that exceptions can of course be made in the case of special disaster permits.

1. Sustainable and fair asylum immigration

We want to see an international system where asylum seekers have their grounds for asylum assessed by UNHCR in a process separate from decisions on residence permits. The Swedish Migration Agency and other national authorities are instead given the task of prioritizing asylum seekers based on the conditions for reception that exist in the country.

In this prioritization among asylum seekers, we believe that factors such as the presence of relatives, cultural and geographical proximity, special needs, prerequisites for successful integration, and other relevant circumstances must be taken into account. How these factors interact with the reasons for asylum should also be investigated. For example, a person fleeing personal persecution and oppression has much greater reason to come to a country that is culturally and geographically distant than a person fleeing war or famine.

We believe that UNHCR is better suited than national authorities such as the Swedish Migration Agency to investigate the special and local circumstances that affect grounds for asylum. By separating the processes for asylum grounds and residence permits, the risk of arbitrary refusals for asylum grounds is minimized, as national authorities, characterized by national interests and political will, are excluded from the process. Instead, an objective assessment is made of whether grounds for asylum exist, which national authorities then take a position on based on their political conditions. The prerequisite for integration must affect the country in which an asylum seeker is granted asylum, but not the assessment of his or her grounds for asylum.

This would partly ensure that no one falls through the cracks, but also make it impossible to use the system in the form of asylum shopping. Asylum seekers can no longer choose to seek asylum in a particular country due to things like living standards, but will be received by the country with the best conditions based on the parameters given above.

Therefore, we want to:

§1 The responsibility for the investigation of grounds for asylum is transferred to an international authority under the UNHCR;

§2 The Migration Agency is tasked with prioritizing among the persons whose reasons for asylum have been ratified by UNHCR based on a set of objective conditions for special need for asylum or prerequisite for integration in Sweden in particular.

2. A dignified integration

As a receiving country, it is not enough to tolerate the presence of asylum seekers, we should also strive to give them a dignified life with the conditions to be able to integrate in Sweden. Asylum seekers today are placed in many ways in limbo while they wait for a decision on their asylum application. The Pirate Party wants the integration work to include not only those with residence permits, but also those who are in Sweden waiting for their asylum case to be processed. We want initiatives such as SFI, labor market training, skills validation, mental health care and the like to be put in place from day one to give asylum seekers who want to stay in Sweden long-term a legitimate chance to meet the requirements to get a residence permit even after the reasons for asylum have ended.

With the limited capacity for integration that we have, it is also important that people who no longer have grounds for asylum or who have committed serious crimes are deported. When grossly criminal immigrants are allowed to continue to be in Sweden, this also risks creating a breeding ground for xenophobia, prejudice and racism. In the end, it is other immigrants who pay the highest price when serious crime does not lead to deportation.

Therefore, we want to:

§3 Asylum seekers who have fled war zones or other traumatic events as soon as possible receive relevant mental health care;

§4 The upper age limit for starting upper secondary education as an asylum seeker is raised from 18 to 20 years;

§5 The establishment program is extended to also include asylum seekers;

§6 The EBO Act is abolished;

§7 Asylum seekers or refugees are deported in case of serious crime.