80,000 Migrant To Be Evicted From Sweden

The announcement of expulsion was revealed after a teenage asylum seeker was arrested on suspicion of murdering a female employee at a youth refugee centre in Molndal, near Gothenburg, earlier this week.

A motive for the stabbing attack was not clear, but her death has led to questions about overcrowded conditions in some centres, with too few adults and employees to look after children, many traumatised by war.

Over eighty-thousand migrants who arrived in Sweden last year are going to be expelled from the country, its interior minister has announced.

Anders Ygeman said thousands of migrants' asylum applications had been rejected.

"We are talking about 60,000 people but the number could climb to 80,000," he was quoted as saying by Swedish media.

He said the expulsions would be staggered over several years.

Police and authorities in charge of migrants have been asked to organise the expulsion.

Migrants whose applications are rejected are normally taken out of Sweden using commercial flights.

But because of the large number being rejected they would use specially chartered aircraft to take them out of the country, Mr Ygeman said.

Sweden accepted more than 160,000 asylum seekers last year, putting it among the EU states with the highest proportion of refugees per capita.

The number of migrant arrivals has dropped sharply since it brought in systematic photo ID checks for travellers earlier this month.