Asylum-Seekers Stay After Sweden Says No
MALMO, Sweden — A family whose members say they fled Albania to escape a blood feud was rejected for asylum by Swedish officials, who months later asked them to leave. But so far, only one has been deported.
Sentila Kernaja, who turned 21 in April, three siblings and their disabled mother each collect 1,800 Swedish kronor, about $ 200, a month from the government. The government covers round- theclock care for the mother, who is 42 and paralyzed from the waist down. The siblings attend a public high school, for free.
Ms. Kernaja cleans houses off the books while inhabiting a legal limbo. “I told them to keep the money and give me a work permit,” she said.
The family is among an estimated 18,000 people who live in Sweden though their claims for asylum have been turned down. Their status has come under scrutiny since Rakhmat Akilov, a 39-year- old failed asylum seeker from Uzbekistan, drove a truck into a pedestrian shopping street in Stockholm on April 7, killing five.
Though it takes pride in its humanitarian heritage and its generous social protections, Sweden is rethinking some of its policies.
It is not easy to get asylum in Sweden — but it is easy to stay if one has been turned down.
Ms. Kernaja says her father died 16 years ago when the taxi he was driving was involved in a crash that killed three passengers. The passengers’ relatives want revenge, she said.
Her 19-year- old brother was picked up in February and sent home in March. Ms. Kernaja worries that she could be next.
The Albanian government acknowledges that dozens of families live in virtual seclusion, fearful of being killed if they leave their homes because of this ancient custom. However, asylum claims based on blood feuds are common and are difficult to prove.
Out of 18,000 failed asylum seekers in Sweden, 12,500 have gone underground, according to Patrik Engstrom, head of the Swedish Border Police. “We have the capacity to deport at most 5,000 rejected applicants a year,” he said.
The workload is increasing as Sweden moves through the 191,000 asylum applications it received in the last two years. Fifty thousand rejections are anticipated.
Had the police found Mr. Akilov, the suspect in the Stockholm rampage, deporting him would have been difficult.
Fear of a crackdown has been coursing through the Uzbek community, said Fadi Al-Aieshy, an asylum lawyer in Stockholm. Almost 6,000 Uzbeks applied for asylum between 2000 and 2015, he said.
“Generally, Uzbeks are extremely scared because they run into problems when they go back to Uzbekistan,” he said. “It’s considered treason to apply for asylum.”
Swedish employers often look the other way when it comes to ille- gal workers.
Recently, the government unveiled a plan to allow the police to raid businesses if they think there is a chance that people are working there without immigration papers.
The system also gives rejected asylum seekers an incentive to try again. Anyone who is rejected and manages to stay in Sweden for four years can file a new claim.
Sofie Rudh, a spokeswoman for the Swedish Migration Ministry, said the ministry was not disbursing welfare payments for families — like the Kernajas — whose asylum claims had been denied. But such payments from other branches of government are not prohibited. Asked why, she replied, “Swedish people are asking themselves this question, too.”