Afghanistan, Sweden to start talks on return of failed asylum seekers

Stockholm (dpa) - Afghanistan and Sweden agreed on Friday to open talks on repatriating Afghan nationals whose asylum bids have been rejected, leaders of both countries said."Many refugees coming to Sweden are from Afghanistan or Afghans, many are unaccompanied minors," Swedish Prime Minister Stefan Lofven said after talks with Afghan President Ashraf Ghani."This year about 20,000 minors, primarily young men, have come to Sweden, and this is of course a serious challenge for both our countries," Lofven added."Migration is a human tragedy and a human phenomenon," Ghani said. "As partners we have agreed there is a common problem."The two sides were also to review push and pull factors contributing to the migrant flows.Push factors included poverty, insecurity and lack of trust. "We will address the push factors," Ghani said, also pointing out that a significant number of Afghans had arrived from "third countries."During Ghani‘s visit, a new bilateral aid agreement was inked. Lofven underlined that Afghanistan remained Sweden‘s main foreign aid recipient and was set to receive about 1 billion dollars in the period 2015-2024.The two also discussed security issues in Afghanistan, with Ghani paying tribute among others to the 10,000 Swedish nationals who served with the NATO-led ISAF forces in Afghanistan.According to Lofven, Sweden had been forced to tighten asylum rules as it was struggling to provide accommodation for all arrivals. His country had received 80,000 asylum applications over the past two months, equalling the total for the whole of 2014, he said.Last week, Sweden announced it would tighten rules for asylum seekers and no longer give permanent residency to all people granted refuge.The government on Friday also presented a draft bill that would give it emergency powers to temporarily close roads - but not railways - to the country on "security" grounds.This could allow the government to close vehicle traffic for up to a month on the Oresund rail and road bridge that links Sweden and Denmark.Sweden - a country of almost 10 million - has along with Germany and Austria been among the top destinations in Europe for people fleeing conflict in countries such as Syria and Iraq.