NEW REGULATIONS FOR REFUGEES FROM BOSNIA
The Swedish government decided on 22 June to introduce the visa obligation for refugees from Bosnia. The measure will make it all but impossible for Bosnians to enter Sweden. However, by the same decision, most of the 40.000 Bosnians currently awaiting a decision on their asylum application in Sweden will be granted a permanent residence permit.
Applications from those Bosnian asylum seekers already staying in Sweden, who have been split from their families as a result of their flight, will be handled as a priority. Swedish regulations provide for the reunification of spouses, childern under age 20, and, in some cases of grandparents.
The Minister of Cultural Affairs, Birgitt Friggebo, responsible of immigration said that the government was also considering to seek the parliament's approval to raising the "planned reception of refugees", by augmenting the number of so-called "quota-refugees" to 1000 persons per month, for refugees from former Yugoslavia.
Ms Friggebo justified the introduction of the visa obligation with the assertion that Sweden was no longer able to cope with the present influx of 1.200 to 1.700 Bosnian refugees per week and stressed that most Bosnian refugees were entering into Sweden by bus, via countries such as Poland, Hungary and Slovakia. These countries are considered as "safe" by Sweden. The introduction of the visa obligation is a direct signal to these countries to take their responsibility instead of merely transiting asylum seekers to Sweden, the minister said.
By deciding favourably on the individual asylum application of a Bosnian family, the government introduced new jurisdiction permitting the immigration authorities to decide on some 40.000 further applications from Bosnians that had previously been shelved. Ms Friggebo said, that the previous policy of tolerating Bosnian refugees on Swedish territory on a provisional basis without handling their applications, had been introduced in view of a possible improvment of the situation in Yugoslavia, but that the further deterioration of the situation in Bosnia no longer permitted to hope for an early return of refugees to their country.
Source: Dagens Nyheter, 22.6.93