Inside Track
Sweden Makes Plans to Deport 80,000
After being flooded with more than 160,000 refugees last year — an unprecedented number for the small Scandinavian nation — Sweden is already estimating that at least 80,000 asylum seekers’ applications will be rejected. Then Sweden will have to figure out how to make them leave.
Whether or not Sweden can solve this problem will speak volumes about the risks of having open borders. According to Swedish Interior Minister Andres Ygeman, the mass deportations can be carried out, over several years, using specially chartered jets. It is hard to see any alternative (except perhaps using oceangoing vessels), but the logistics will be formidable. For one thing, where will they be flown to? There are no international airports or drop-off venues in Syria suited to the repatriation of refugees. Iraq is increasingly unstable outside of Baghdad. And the Taliban are rapidly reconquering Afghanistan.
Moreover, many refugees will physically resist rather than be deported willingly. Sweden may have to physically restrain deportees on flights, and reserve plenty of seats for security personnel to put down the inevitable in-flight rebellions.
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