FECL 03 (January/February 1992):

NEW GOVERNMENT REMOVES "URGENCY MEASURE" DENYING RIGHT OF ASYLUM TO WAR OBJECTORS AND DE FACTO REFUGEES

The Swedish government made true a electoral promise of Folkpartiet (Liberal party, junior partner of the governing center-right coalition) to remove "urgency" provisions introduced in December 89 by the former socialist government denying the right of asylum to refugees rated as "de facto" refugees, i.e. refugees on other grounds than those mentioned by the Geneva Refugee Convention.
The measure, officially justified had led to a drastic rise of the rejection quota by the countries alleged incapacity to cope with ever rising numbers of refugees, had led to a drastic rise of rejections. Various Human Rights and Asylum organisations had criticized the decree on the grounds that it broke with Swedens humanitarian obligations and led to legal insecurity and summary rejections.

The move by the new government comes as a happy surprise for the Swedish asylum movement. But sceptics point out that the new, more liberal policy risks to be shortlived. Indeed, the government has speeded up harmonization efforts with European asylum policies and has marked its interest for the Schengen process and the Dublin Convention. Once Sweden will have joined such forms of intergovernmental cooperation, the margin for an independant and more generous Swedish asylum policy will be narrow.