New suggestion threatens humane asylum policy

RFSL

On September 15, the parliamentary committee appointed by the government presented a suggestion for new asylum legislation. The suggestion to make temporary residence permits the norm coupled with a host of new requirements for family reunification, which in practice will discriminate against LGBTQI people, will make asylum seekers even more vulnerable.

– The humane consequences, in the form of increased vulnerability for asylum seekers and LGBTQI people in need of protection and other particularly exposed groups, risk being catastrophic, says RFSL’s president Deidre Palacios.

RFSL can conclude that many of the suggestions of the report contravene the UN refugee agency UNHCR’s recommendations to Sweden, for example, that countries should remove legal, financial and practical obstacles for family reunification. Sweden now risks ending up with asylum legislation that is far more restrictive than many other EU countries’.

The suggestion means that many parts of the temporary asylum legislation Sweden has had since 2016 will become permanent.

Among other things, the committee suggests: 

  • Temporary, instead of permanent, residence permits of three years for refugees, and 13 months for people with a subsidiary protection status, which can be prolonged.
  • Maintenance and language requirements for permanent residence permits.
  • Restrictions in family reunification in the form of maintenance requirements and requirements regarding the size of accommodation.
  • The requirement of having cohabitated in the country of origin to be eligible for family reunification will be a blow to LGBTQI people. LGBTQI people have seldom had the opportunity to cohabitate in countries that persecute and criminalise them.

– I’m deeply concerned about the human suffering that would ensue should temporary residence permits become the norm. We already know that many asylum-seeking LGBTQI people have suffered emotionally from that rule. I am actually ashamed. Sweden can do much better, says Deidre Palacios.

Read the compilation of the negative consequences RFSL believes that the Migration Agency’s suggestion will entail.