Sweden calls in army to help handle overwhelming refugee numbers

THE refugee crisis in Sweden has now reached the point where military intervention is necessary due to the sheer number of people arriving to the country.

On Monday November 9 officers from the Swedish army arrived at Migrationsverket, Sweden’s refugee and immigration agency, and they are reported to be helping with the management of the situation as opposed to having people on the ground.

Fredrik Bengtsson, the migration agency´s main spokesman said “We don’t have any more space.” He added that accommodation owned by the State has been fully occupied since 2012 and officials are now not able to locate more affordable private housing,

“For the time being, all of these are finished as well, so for the last three or four nights we’ve had people sleeping in our [non-residential] centres across the country. Right now we’re just looking for people to have a roof over their heads.”

The agency estimates that around 170,000 refugees will reach Sweden by the end of 2015. There are now 10,000 people arriving each week in comparison to the summer months when 4,000 people came in each week.

In Stockholm there are two main reception centres and Olof Grindemark, a team leader at the Märsta facility said

“I’ve never seen this many people, ever. We don’t seem to have any more beds in Sweden. We don’t have anywhere to send them.”