Google – AFP, 3 Sep 2013
Syrian
refugees gather outside a registration tent at the Quru Gusik
refugee camp in
Iraq on August 24, 2013 (AFP/File, Safin Hamed)
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STOCKHOLM —
Sweden on Tuesday became the first European Union country to announce it will
give asylum to all Syrian refugees who apply.
"All
Syrian asylum seekers who apply for asylum in Sweden will get it," Annie
Hoernblad, the spokeswoman for Sweden's migration agency, told AFP.
"The
agency made this decision now because it believes the violence in Syria will
not end in the near future."
The
decision, which will give refugees permanent resident status, is valid until
further notice, added Hoernblad.
Until now,
Sweden could only house refugees temporarily for three years, after each
individual case was evaluated by the state.
The agency
expects that the "vast majority of Syrian nationals who today have
provisional status will apply for permanent status," said Hoernblad.
Those
granted permanent status will also be allowed to bring their families to
Sweden.
The move
came as the United Nations said the number of refugees fleeing the conflict in
Syria had passed two million, which the UN High Commissioner for Refugees,
Antonio Guterres, called "the great tragedy of this century".
Since 2012,
Sweden has taken in some 14,700 asylum seekers from Syria.
Swedish
Migration Minister Tobias Billstroem called on other countries to recognise
their duty to help the Syrian people.
"No
other conflict on earth today is as terrible as the long and bloody conflict in
Syria. That should make many politicians, inside and outside the EU, think
about our responsibilities," he told the Swedish tabloid newspaper
Aftonbladet.
In 2012,
Sweden received a total of 44,000 asylum requests, a 48-percent increase and
the highest number since 1992, at the time of the conflict in the former
Yugoslavia.
The figure
included around 8,000 requests from Syrians.
Facts on the more than two million Syrians who have fled their
war-ravaged country (AFP/Graphic)
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