Only 32,000 Refugees to Arrive in Sweden in 2016 Against 160,000 in 2015

STOCKHOLM (Sputnik) — In the beginning of the year, Sweden’s Migration Agency announced that it expected to receive up to 140,000 asylum applications in 2016, which it considered a threatening scenario.

In January, Sweden started to tighten its migrant policy, in particular, by imposing identity checks on people arriving in the country, later denying of accommodation to those who were refused asylum. In mid-2016, the Swedish Parliament adopted a law to limit asylum seekers' possibilities of being granted residence permits and the possibility for the applicant's family to come to Sweden.

Europe has been beset by a massive refugee crisis, with hundreds of thousands of undocumented migrants from the Middle East and North Africa fleeing their home countries to escape violence and poverty. Many migrants have arrived by sea to the shores of maritime states and try to move further to wealthier European countries, such as Germany and Sweden.

EU border agency Frontex detected over 1.83 million illegal border crossings in 2015.