Sweden is asking migrants to go back. The incentive is $34,000 per family

Sweden is offering a hefty sum of US $34,000 per immigrant family to return to their home countries, one of the many tactics some Western nations are adopting to cut the number of asylum seekers.

Sweden’s new policy, set to take effect in 2026, marks a substantial increase from the current grant of up to $970 per adult and $485 per child.

During a press conference on September 12, Sweden’s migration Minister Johan Forssell described the new policy as a “paradigm shift” in the Nordic country which in 2015 opened its borders to 162,877 asylum seekers, mostly of Syrian, Afghan, and Iraqi descent as a “humanitarian superpower”.

The grant system, implemented in 1984, was intended to provide financial incentives for immigrants to voluntarily return to their home countries, yet, only one person took the existing offer last year, according to Forssell.

If more people were aware of the grant and its size was increased, more would likely accept the offer, Ludvig Aspling of the Sweden Democrats told reporters.

After coming to power in 2022, Ulf Kristersson, the first prime minister in Swedish history to rely on the far-right Sweden Democrats for support, vowed to take a tougher stance on immigration and crime.

Sweden’s move aligns with a broader trend seen in neighbouring countries, which have also tightened their migration policies significantly.

Denmark

Despite Denmark being led by a coalition government led by a centre-left party, the country maintains some of the most restrictive policies and polarised rhetoric around immigration in the European Union.

In 2010, the Danish government began designating low-income, predominantly minority neighbourhoods as "ghettos," a term later changed to "parallel societies" due to its derogatory connotations.

“Ghettos” included areas where the proportion of immigrants and descendants from non-Western countries was over 50 percent.

In 2018, Denmark enacted laws under the "Ghetto Package" aimed at reducing non-profit family housing in these areas to 40 percent by 2030.

Under the “Ghetto Package,” the Danish government permitted the demolition of homes in low-income, predominantly Muslim neighbourhoods to alter their character.

Residential blocks were sold to private investors, who converted them into luxury apartments as part of a larger plan to drive out disadvantaged locals who could no longer afford the increased rents.

In these neighbourhoods, assimilation has become a requirement rather than a choice for those who want to stay.

Since 2019, all families in the “ghettos” have had to enrol their children over the age of one in daycare centres where they are taught "Danish values" and language, with welfare benefits being withheld from those who fail to comply.

In another highly contentious measure under the Ghetto Package, people convicted of crimes in “Ghettos” generally face sentences twice as long as those committing the same offences elsewhere.

There are currently 12 such areas in Denmark where immigrants from non-Western countries and their descendants constitute more than 50% of the population.

Conditions are harsh in Danish detention centres, where individuals denied residence permits endure indefinite detention, often under solitary confinement and with inadequate access to health services as well as legal advice and translation.

And a controversial 2016 policy, labelled "vindictive" by Human Rights Watch, permits the Danish government to seize refugees’ assets if they possess more than £1,000 in cash to cover the cost of their stay.

The UK

Before the UK's new Labour government cancelled the plan, the UK and Rwanda had signed an agreement to deport asylum seekers from Britain to Rwanda, which many human rights groups criticised as cruel and inhumane.

The scheme, agreed upon in April 2022 by then-Prime Minister Boris Johnson, intended to send anyone who arrived in Britain illegally after January 1, 2022, to Rwanda, a country over 6,400 kilometres away.

However, the first deportation flight scheduled for June 2022, was halted by European judges.

Subsequently, the UK Supreme Court upheld a ruling that the scheme was unlawful, citing concerns that migrants could be returned to their home countries or to other nations where they might face the threat of mistreatment.

In July, the UK announced that it would also scrap the controversial use of a barge to house asylum-seekers off the south coast of England as part of its immigration system overhaul.

The “prison barge” has been a focal point of controversy, having been evacuated for two months in August of 2023 due to legionella bacteria in its water supply, and later in December, when an Albanian man was found dead on board, suspected of suicide.

As of now, asylum seekers continue to face dire conditions in the UK, with the number of deaths in the care of the government having more than doubled in the past year, according to a report by The Guardian.

“Unfortunately there are some terrible examples of self-harm and suicide across the asylum estate in the UK,” Nicola David, the founder of One Life To Live, a UK-based organisation working to challenge public preconceptions of asylum and refugee issues, tells TRT World.

“People come here when they are already traumatised, and then they have a traumatic journey, and then they are traumatised by the way they are treated when they arrive in the UK.”

Italy

In 2023, facing a surge in arriving migrants, the Italian government enacted tougher measures to extend detention times and ensure that more immigrants without legal status are returned to their home countries.

Under the new rules, migrants awaiting repatriation would be kept in detention centres for an initial six months, extendable to up to 18, an increase from the current three-month limit.

The Italian Coalition for Civil Rights and Liberties (CILD) has criticised these detention centres as “black holes” where serious violations of fundamental rights occur.

Since 2017, Italy has also been part of a contentious EU-backed agreement with the UN-supported Libyan government in Tripoli.

As part of the deal, Italy provides training and funding to the Libyan coastguard to prevent migrant departures and to return those already at sea to Libya, where human rights groups have said they are subjected to torture and abuse in arbitrary detention.

Germany

On September 9, Germany announced plans to tighten border controls, aiming to reduce irregular migration and protect the public from "Islamist extremism."

A new scheme was designed by the government allowing police to temporarily detain asylum seekers already registered in other EU member states, while authorities work to expedite their return to those countries.

In June, the German government also introduced new legislation aimed at easing the deportation of foreigners who 'publicly endorse terrorist acts'.

Under the law, even a single social media post approving or promoting “a terrorist crime” could be considered grounds for deportation.

Government statistics show that asylum applications in Germany dropped by 21.7% in the first eight months of 2024.

Across the wider EU, over 1.14 million asylum applications were filed in 2023, the highest since the 2016 migrant crisis.

Yet, in recent months, applications have decreased, with the month of May seeing a one-third drop compared to the peak of last autumn.