Sweden to check migrants’ smartphones for pictures of destroyed passports

Deportations of failed asylum seekers sped up amid fears they are being recruited by organised crime gangs

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Swedish border guards will be given the power to search migrants’ smartphones to look for evidence of destroyed passports under a new law backed by the country’s Right-wing coalition government.
The law comes as part of a wider push to speed up deportations of failed asylum seekers to drive down migrant numbers amid fears they are being recruited by Sweden’s organised crime gangs.
Officials believe migrants entering Sweden may have used their phones to take photos or make digital copies of their passports and other documents before destroying them on arrival at airports.
Swedish officials said identifying migrants was vital if the person was to be deported after a failed claim.
“Next week, we are going to receive a government inquiry on increasing the possibilities for the police to look into iPhones to find the documents that have been scanned there,” Anders Hall, state secretary for the ministry of justice, told The Telegraph.
“When you tear up your passport, you might keep a copy or a photo in your phone because sooner or later you might need it. This will give the legal basis to make it possible to look for them.”
The government expects the law to enter into force in 2025-26 after a consultation period.
Sweden now says there are more emigrants than immigrants for the first time in 50 years after toughening asylum rules since Ulf Kristersson took power as prime minister in 2022.
His conservative coalition is propped up by the hard-Right Sweden Democrats, which was partly founded by Nazi sympathisers and remains formally outside of government despite coming second in a 2022 election dominated by fears over migration and crime.
“We signed up for a very detailed agreement, both in terms of law enforcement and migration,” Mr Hall said.
“The Sweden Democrats have more or less full insight into what we are doing. We are constantly having meetings with them, telling them where we are implementing.”
He pointed out that despite the uproar over the cooperation with the Sweden Democrats, the opposition Social Democrats had not voted against a single migration measure brought forward by the government.
“There was much ado about nothing,” he said before adding that the Sweden Democrats were being encouraged to be more responsible through their brushes with government.
Mr Hall was in London this week to brief UK government officials on Sweden’s crackdown.
Other measures include boosting voluntary repatriation, as well as deportations.
Naturalised citizens and families of migrants could be offered money to leave the country as part of a voluntary return scheme that already offers refugees about £720 and travel costs.
As a rule, asylum seekers should live in reception centres or return centres rather than private housing. 
The government has also introduced rules making it possible to strip serious criminals or terrorists with dual nationalities of their Swedish nationality.
Accepted refugees are also no longer granted permanent residence as a matter of course. Instead, their claim is reviewed every three years.
Sweden is among EU member states calling for tougher rules to make deporting failed asylum seekers easier.
Increasing numbers of claims are being made by migrants arriving in the bloc legally in airports before destroying their papers.
In 2015, 13 per cent of all asylum claims in the EU were made in Sweden but that was down to 2 per cent in 2023. In 2023, Sweden received 12,600 asylum applications, which is lower than in 2020, and is expected to be the lowest since 1997.
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