The Swedish Migration Agency, is a Swedish government agency. Its task is to evaluate and decide on applications from people who want to seek a temporary residence permit, acquire permanent residence or citizenship in Sweden. This makes it involved in immigration to Sweden The Swedish Migration Agency is under the Ministry of Justice and operates nationwide from about 40 offices. It is headquartered in Norrköping in Östergötland and is led by a Director General, currently Anders Danielsson. In 2014, the agency received 81,301 applications for asylum, of which 31,220 were granted. In 2017 according to calculations done by weekly magazine Fokus, the agency's budget for unaccompanied minors alone at 27 billion krona represented 37% of the UNHCR:s budget for managing refugees over the entire planet.
Criticism
The Swedish Migration Agency has come under criticism for its opaque handling of expatriate work permit applications and inordinate delays coupled with over-zealous, often controversial, readings of Swedish regulations related to insurance requisites for work permit extensions. The Agency continues to process applications with delays extending up to 10 months in some cases. In May 2016 the Swedish National Board of Forensic Medicinesv: Rättsmedicinalverket started aiding the agency with determining the age of migrants claiming to be under 18. The first batch of 518 investigations indicated that 442 were likely adult and the rest retained their status as unaccompanied minors, which gave access to education, better housing and greater likelihood of refugee status. Of the 442, 430 were men and 12 women. RMV was tasked with doing the backlog of 3000 - 14000 age investigations which had been obstructed by Swedish Bar Association lawyers, doctors, dentists and officials of National Board of Health and Welfare. In June 2016 the SMA expressed doubts about 70% of asylum applicants purportedly 15-17. Up until 2017, this agency awarded temporary residence permits also to people considered war criminals and security threats. This allowed these individuals to claim welfare benefits and healthcare from the state of Sweden. In September 2017 staff at the agency reported rising levels of death threats and harassment from migrants applying for residence permits. The nature of the threats changed with staff members being sought out at their homes or receiving threatening messages on private phones or in social media. In July 2018, the agency together with municipalities of Sweden was criticised by the national agency against honor-related crime for not doing enough to discover and rectify child marriages among migrants.
