Author
Housing offered by the Swedish Migration Agency is either in an apartment, in a normal housing area or at a reception centre and is acquired through public procurement. Ordinary apartments are usually the Swedish Migration Agency’s primary option for accommodating asylum seekers.[1] Asylum seekers can choose to live at a centre but in that case they might need to move to a town where the Swedish Migration Agency can offer them a place. There are differences in the way material reception conditions are provided depending on the procedure (“track”) in which asylum seekers are in. For applicants in the Dublin procedure (“Track 5A”) and the Accelerated Procedure (“Track 4”), for example, accommodation is located close to airports, with the aim of speeding up potential removal from Sweden.
If asylum seekers have their own resources, although they can still access the accommodation system, they must pay for it themselves. If not, accommodation at a centre is free. Single persons need to share a room. A family can have its own room but must expect to share an apartment with other people. It is possible that asylum seekers are moved around within the centre or to another centre during the processing period.
Asylum seekers may also choose to opt for private accommodation with friends or relatives. However, the Swedish Migration Agency can only influence matters concerning the accommodation they themselves provide since they hold the contracts for the flats and can make demands on the owners regarding material conditions.
Should the asylum seeker choose to settle in so-called socio-economically challenged areas, the rules foresee that these persons are no longer entitled to a daily allowance (see Criteria and restrictions to access reception conditions).[2]
The total number of asylum seekers and Temporary Protection beneficiaries registered in the reception system at the end of 2023 was 55,028 (down from 61,350 in 2022), of which 5,421 were living in Migration Agency accommodation, 33,551 in private accommodation and 16,056 in other forms of accommodation.[3] Most likely the decrease from the end of 2022 is due to fewer persons from Ukraine coming to Sweden.
The number of places in Migration Agency accommodation decreased from 19,593 in 2022 to 14 784 in 2023.[4]
The Swedish Migration Agency also operates “departure centres” for persons who have agreed to voluntary departure to the home country or Dublin cases. In 2023, the Migration Agency started a new kind of departure centre (återvändandecenter). The centres have about 650 places and are situated in Burlöv, Enköping, Malmö, Mölndal and Stockholm. The Migration Agency aim to have 2,000 places at such centres at the end of 2024. It is only persons that are still in the reception system that are entitled to a place in a departure centre, in practice this means it is mainly families with minor children that are entitled to a place in a departure centre.[5]
[1] Migration Agency, ‘Housing for asylum-seekers’, available in Swedish at: https://bit.ly/3fquSpf.
[2] Section 10a, Law on Reception of Asylum Seekers and Others, 1994:137.
[3] Migration Agency, Monthly Statistical Report, December 202329
[4] Migration Agency, Annual Report 2023, Dnr: 1.3.2-2024-2238, available in Swedish at: https://tinyurl.com/Arsredovisning2023.
[5] Migration Agency, ‘Migrationsverket startar återvändandecenter, 2023-10-17, available in Swedish at: https://tinyurl.com/227tc44c.