Asylum seekers refuse to leave the bus outside Östersund – Swedish Radio

Asylum seekers refuse to leave the bus outside Östersund – Swedish Radio

Thirty asylum seekers, who on Wednesday arrived by bus from Malmo to asylum accommodation stew outside Östersund, refuses to leave the bus. Asylum seekers are not happy with their new homes, according Jämtland police.

– It was simply that it was unhappy with this and they wanted to return to Malmö and placed there, says Bengt Stadin, duty officer at Jämtland police.

There was this morning as a bus carrying asylum-seekers arrived from Malmo to an asylum accommodation south of Östersund. But some thirty of them refused then to get off the bus.

Police were called there to help get people off the bus, but since it only requires an eviction procedure for the police to be able to evict them from the bus could not the police do something.

– Only when there is a decision by the Swedish Enforcement Authority, we can provide help. As the situation is now, it is a matter between the applicant and the Swedish Migration Board, says Bengt Stadin, guard-call officers at Jämtland police.

Migration Board’s press communicator Sophia Öhvall Lindberg, press communications officer at the Swedish Migration Board says the man Asylum seekers do not have the right to choose where to be placed.

– We make it clear to applicants that this is what accommodation they offered. If they do not want to stay here, they need to arrange their own accommodation.

It happens that asylum seekers have views and opinions about where to stay, but they refuse to accept their living in this way is not very common, says Sophia Öhvall Lindberg at the Swedish Migration Board.

– No, this is not very common. That the lands so that you refuse to go out, says Sophia Öhvall Lindberg at the Swedish Migration Board.

Asylum seekers sat at 17 o’clock on Wednesday afternoon still on the bus at the asylum accommodation outside Östersund.

– We’ll see what happens during the night. It is not likely to be so nice to sit in that bus in the winter cold. So one might voluntarily enter the barracks and quarters there, hopefully, says Bengt Stadin, duty officer at Jämtland police.

Josefine Owetz
josefine.owetz@sverigesradio.se