Sweden’s asylum seekers are hopping to Estonia for shopping

Photo: Mihkel Maripuu / Postimees

In Police and Border Guard Board internal mailing list, Northern prefect thereof Kristian Jaani painted an overview of last year highlighting the rising trend of people waiting for asylum in Sweden travelling to Estonia to buy cheap alcohol though not permitted to leave the kingdom.

«They are not allowed to leave the country – in this case Sweden – but they come to Estonia to buy alcohol, for instance. The activity is definitely enhanced by the Schengen visa space and self check-in which make travelling easier while also enhancing illegal entry into the country,» wrote Kristian Jaani.

At that, Mr Jaani specified that the people thus entering Estonia are not illegal. «These are people applying for asylum in Sweden, are saying there totally legally, but are not to leave the country. They are travelling around in Schengen – for that, the automatic registrations in ports are very comfortable – and we are having to pick these people out in the port. They are coming here to shop but are not supposed to do that. Yes, this is now a kind of a trend, almost. But finding them is one of our tasks guarding the internal border,» said Kristian Jaani.

«In the framework of Schengen’s compensation measures, travellers on internal border ate checked randomly and on basis of risk profile,» said Tallinn cordon chief Toomas Kaarjärv.

When people like this are discovered during the random checks, it is among other things inquired why they came to Estonia. According to Mr Kaarjärv, then they mention shopping. This may also be concluded on basis of the fact that they have purchased two-way cruise tickets and only stay in Estonia for a day.

Mr Kaarjärv said last year’s random checks disclosed six individuals (two from Iraq, one from Iran, two from Egypt and one from Eritrea) who had applied for asylum in Sweden but left Sweden while the applications were being processed.

«The individuals had been issued internal Swedish ID-cards permitting them to stay in Sweden. Such cards are issued to Swedish citizens and foreigners alike. If a person only possesses an internal Swedish ID-card, this grants them no right to stay on the entire territory of the European Union,» explained Mr Kaarjärv.

On top of that, they discovered seven more persons who had travelled to Estonia while resident permit applications were being processed. These also were not supposed to leave the country. However, five people left Sweden (one of Bolivian, two of Azerbaijani, and two of Georgian citizenship), and two left Finland (a Lebanese and a Chinese).

Last summer, there were over 32,000 asylum applicants in Sweden, and more than 110,000 people with asylum already granted. The latter have the right to spend three months abroad within Schengen.