What happened
The number of prosecuted individuals facing deportation has increased sharply since the government's tightened legislation came into force. In Stockholm, Göteborg, and Malmö, prosecutors' deportation motions increased by a combined 242 percent during the month of September compared to the same month the previous year. The government's stated goal with the tightening of rules is that more people who commit crimes should leave the country. At the same time, concerns are now being raised by representatives within the Swedish justice system regarding the development.
Our analysis
When the number of demands for deportation more than triples in a single year, it is not due to a sudden crime wave. It is because the threshold has been lowered so sharply that deportation is becoming a standard demand against new Swedes in the courts.
The government gladly sells the reform as decisiveness and order. But when the justice system itself sounds the alarm, the downside is exposed: legal certainty is sacrificed when deportation decisions are turned into political points. For old Swedes, the legal process is about guilt, punishment, and rehabilitation into society. For new Swedes, the legal process is increasingly turned into a question of the right to live in the country at all.
The relevant question is what the pursuit of deportation figures actually solves for Sweden. It does not stop recruitment into crime, but it guarantees that new Swedes are constantly reminded that their existence and rights are considered conditional.
Explained
A deportation motion means that the prosecutor formally requests that the court decide that a person who is not a Swedish citizen must be forced to leave the country in the event of a conviction.