Sweden Hardens Migration Rules After 2022 Pact, Targeting Children and Longtime Residents
Updated
Updated · The Guardian · Sep 11
Sweden Hardens Migration Rules After 2022 Pact, Targeting Children and Longtime Residents
1 articles · Updated · The Guardian · Sep 11
Summary
Sweden’s tougher post-2022 migration regime has produced deportation orders for a baby to Iran, a 4-year-old boy with autism and a 74-year-old British resident with dementia.
Those cases followed the Tidö agreement, which let Prime Minister Ulf Kristersson’s conservatives govern with Sweden Democrats backing and gave the far right broad influence over immigration, crime and other policy.
Human-rights groups say the shift now reaches beyond migration: Sweden’s 2026 rights report warned of eroding protections, growing acceptance of xenophobia and punitive policies aimed at children, including prison proposals for 14-year-olds.
Polls before the Sept. 13 election show the centre-left with a slight lead, but the report says many once-taboo far-right ideas have already been absorbed into Sweden’s political mainstream, including by the opposition.