Migration Minister promises to 'look at issue of Brexit deportations', Norbotten sees severe flood risk after record rainfall, and more news from Sweden on Friday.
Migration Minister promises to 'look at issue of Brexit deportations'
Migration Minister Johan Forssell has told Swedish media he will "look at the issue" of British citizens being issued with deportation orders after being refused post-Brexit residency, after a series of high-profile cases were reported in the media.
Forssell said that the government in principle wants British citizens to be able to extend their residency and stay in Sweden.
"We are therefore going to look at the issue and see if we can do something from our side to ease the processes," he said in a statement shared to the Dagens Nyheter newspaper.
In the statement, he said the government would start by contacting the Migration Agency to better understand the issue and would "after that look over what in that case might be appropriate to do at a political level".
Forssell said that the statistics might have been affected by British citizens who instead applied for citizenship, as well as late or incomplete applications.
Swedish vocabulary: ofullstandig – incomplete
Sweden Democrat leader says 'not our role to rescue Liberals'
Sweden Democrat leader Jimmie Åkesson has said he does not want his party's supporters to offer the Liberal Party any tactical votes, arguing it is not his party's responsibility to rescue the ailing party.
"It is not in the interests of the Sweden Democrats to vote for other parties," he told TV4 in an interview.
"If I'm honest, I think this is more a concern for the borgerlig ["centre-right" or also "middle class"] parties. The centre-right usually handles this by voting tactically for one another, but we are not a centre-right party."
"The Liberals are actually on the opposite side from us in this alliance, so I am not encouraging anyone to tactically vote for them in any way."
Swedish vocabulary: motpol – opposite side (literally opposing pole)
Social Democrats propose banning gang criminals from owning dogs
The Social Democrats have called for a ban on dog ownership for members of criminal gangs.
In an interview with the Aftonbladet newspaper, the party's justice spokesperson Teresa Carvalho said that so called kamphundar or "fighting dogs" (dogs such as Staffordshire Terriers, Pitbull Terriers, and American Bullies), were popular among criminals.
"It is important because we see how fighting dogs, but also other breeds, are used by people in criminal network environments as status markers and to scare people and actually also as pure weapons," she told the newspaper.
The ban would apply even to gang criminals who have not been convicted of a crime. The party wants to launch a government inquiry into such a ban.
Swedish vocabulary: kamphund – fighting dog
Norrbotten sees severe flood risk after record rainfall
Sweden's state weather forecasting service SMHI has issued an orange weather warning for heavy rain and flooding over parts of eastern Norrbotten, with a risk of flooding from Boden up to Jokkmokk, and a lesser yellow warning for Luleå and Kalix to the south and north.
The agency is particularly warning of flooding around the Buddbyträsket and Bodträsket lakes near Boden.
The rescue services in Boden are already under pressure and have requested extra resources, P4 Norrbotten, the local channel of public broadcaster SR said.
"In my 26 years with the rescue services in Boden, we have not seen this amount of water, not even during the snowmelt period," rescue chief Magnus Nilsson told the broadcaster.
The emergency services have gone on standby and the municipality of Boden has activated a central crisis management system.
"The danger is that we will have an impact on essential services, and that we will have an impact on infrastructure – that is, roads will become impassable and we may also have landslides and erosion," Nilsson said.
So far in August, Jokkmokk Airport has received the most precipitation with 279.6 mm of rain, followed by Luleå-Kallax with 230.0 mm of rain, Magnus Joelsson, meteorologist at SMHI, told TT.
Swedish vocabulary: träsk – a swamp, bog