Sweden ends sweeping ‘automatic asylum’ policy for Syrians

Stockholm has tightened its lenient migration laws with regard to Syrian asylum-seekers, saying that not all parts of the war-torn country are equally dangerous anymore.

Since the intensity of the war in Syria “has slightly decreased,” the new asylum-seekers “will not automatically be granted protection in Sweden” any longer, the Swedish Migration Agency said on Thursday.

From now on, officials will assess each Syrian asylum seeker, considering what part of the country he or she came from. The residents of the six ‘more dangerous’ provinces – Aleppo, Raqqa, Idlib, Homs, Hama, and Deir ez-Zor – can still expect asylum to be granted automatically. That will not be true for people living in ‘less dangerous’ regions in the south, including Damascus, as well as in Latakia and Tartus on the Mediterranean coast, and the Kurdish-held northeast.

[link to www.rt.com (secure)]

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