Sweden’s controversial plans to deport up to 80,000 asylum-seekers are in line with EU rules and could even strengthen embattled migration policy across the Continent, the European Commission argued yesterday. Commission officials said the returning of failed asylum-seekers fits into the EU’s wider efforts to build a coherent migration strategy that distinguishes between different claims. “Countries are entitled and indeed obliged to return people who are not entitled to stay in the European Union. It is essential to make sure genuine asylum-seekers have their asylum applications processed quickly,” Natasha Bertaud, the commission’s spokeswoman on migration, said. “It is a matter of credibility that we do return these people because we do not want to give the impression that Europe is an open door.” Sweden has been the second most popular destination – after Germany – for the nearly one million migrants who have made their way to Europe in the past year. By population, it has taken in
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