Sweden Makes Plans to Deport 80,000

Tuesday, February 02, 2016

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A few years ago, on a flight from Amsterdam to Dubai, I was startled when a passenger several rows behind me began throwing a screaming fit. He was a thin African man, shouting epithets in a language I could not understand, and he had to be physically restrained and bound by the crew and people who were escorting him.

After the noise subsided, I asked one of the crew what had happened. I was told he was a Somali being deported to his home country. He needed to be physically escorted all the way to Mogadishu against his will, since would not go voluntarily.

I wondered then, and have wondered many times since, if deporting one unwilling, potentially violent illegal immigrant to a country such as Somalia was so much trouble, what would be necessary to deport thousands such?

It would appear that Sweden is about to find out. After being flooded with more than 160,000 refugees last year — an unprecedented number for the small Scandinavian nation — Sweden is already estimating that at least 80,000 asylum seekers’ applications will be rejected. Then Sweden will have to figure out how to make them leave.

Whether or not Sweden can solve this problem will speak volumes about the risks of having open borders. According to Swedish Interior Minister Andres Ygeman, the mass deportations can be carried out, over several years, using specially chartered jets.

It is hard to see any alternative (except perhaps using oceangoing vessels), but the logistics will be formidable. For one thing, where will they be flown to? There are no international airports or drop-off venues in Syria suited to the repatriation of refugees. Iraq is increasingly unstable outside of Baghdad. And the Taliban are rapidly reconquering Afghanistan. So where to put them is not an easy dilemma to solve.

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