New forecast predicts slowdown in asylum applications in Sweden

Sweden expects 23,000 people to seek asylum in 2018, according to a new forecast published by the Swedish Migration Agency on Friday.

The figure is relatively low compared to recent years when the number of asylum seekers was around 25,000 and 29,000, with the exception of 2015 when the Swedish Migration Agency received as many as 163,000 asylum applications.

"We want, as soon as possible, to return to real-time processing of cases; that is to process cases at the speed that they come in so as to avoid requests for complementary information and case-worker swaps during the applicants' waiting time," said Migration Agency head Mikael Ribbenvik in a statement published on the agency's website.

The number of asylum applications is expected to remain stable for the rest of 2018, but Sweden's temporary, three-year law introduced in July 2016 that restricts the chances of asylum seekers and their relatives to receive residence permits, expires mid next year. The number of applicants is then expected to increase again, Swedish Television reported on Friday. The Migration Agency predicts that 29,000 people will seek asylum in Sweden in 2019.

For now, since the number of asylum applications has stabilized and since older cases have been processed, the Migration Agency can focus on the latter part of the asylum process, the statement explained.

Instead of focusing mainly on the reception of newcomers and on assessing the asylum rights of individual applicants, more focus can be placed on taking denied asylum seekers into custody, returning them to their home countries, and on court processes.

According to the Migration Agency, processing times also look set to decrease. They have already gone down for student visa applications, and new asylum and work permit cases look poised to have a processing time of under four months as of mid-2018