00:00There is an escalating conflict in the Middle East.
00:03Could this trigger more migratory flows into Europe?
00:06And what are you and other ministers doing now to prepare?
00:10Well, hopefully not.
00:12I think so far we're not seeing any signs, really, of any imminent waves of refugees leaving Iran.
00:18But, of course, we also know from the war in Syria, for example, 10 years ago, that things can also
00:23change very quickly.
00:24But so far we're not seeing any signs.
00:26But we are prepared, and also today's discussion focused on this in many ways, to prepare for things that we
00:33might not want to happen, but that might occur.
00:37Is Europe equipped, though, to deal with more migratory flows?
00:41And are countries like Sweden able to accept potentially big waves of refugees moving in?
00:48Well, I have said from the beginning that we cannot have what we had 10 years ago.
00:53We cannot have another refugee crisis.
00:55I mean, for obvious reasons, we are still struggling with many of the challenges and problems that we saw back
01:01in 2015.
01:02But also from a very practical point of view, 2015, we had a lot of chaos in our migration system
01:10in Europe.
01:11There were lacking housing, young adults that had to live with older people, etc., and a lot of chaos.
01:20Now we are in a completely new situation.
01:22We have the pact soon in place.
01:25We are better equipped.
01:25But I emphasize that we need to handle this situation, if it occurs, with other means.
01:32We need to be more in the region, in itself, providing people with shelter, with development cooperation, humanitarian assistance.
01:40But receiving very many people, perhaps millions of people as refugees, I think that is impossible for many different reasons.
01:48You also presented to your colleagues today a new initiative that you are leading to change the way that the
01:54Refugee Convention of 1951 is being applied.
01:58Tell us what your goals are here.
02:01Well, our goal is not to change the Refugee Convention from 1951, but we want to make the guidelines regarding
02:08it clear on one thing.
02:10And that is for obvious reasons.
02:12I mean, most people that have a refugee status, they don't commit any crimes.
02:16They're honest people.
02:17But we've also seen lately some cases in Sweden, for example, where an individual, he was sentenced to four years
02:24of prison because of rape.
02:26But still, the Court of Appeals said that because of the fact that he had a refugee status, this rape
02:34was not grave enough for him to be expelled.
02:36I think that is outrageous.
02:39I think even though the Convention is 75 years old, I mean, it would never have been written this way
02:44if it had been written today.
02:46So we want to change this description of it on the guideline.
02:51And that is this Swedish initiative that we're now moving forward with.
02:55These would be people who have received refugee status, presumably because they are fleeing wars and conflict or persecution in
03:02their home countries.
03:03How would that work then if you were to deport an individual because they've committed a serious crime?
03:09When maybe in terms of international law, how would that work if that individual then faces a war or persecution
03:15at home?
03:16Well, we also have the non-referment, of course, to take into consideration.
03:20But what I think is outrageous, and I think most people agree with me, is the fact that someone that
03:27has committed a rape being sentenced to four years of prison is insane that he is not even convicted or
03:34sentenced to expulsion.
03:36So we need to take one thing at a time here.
03:39And in order for this to happen, we need to change the guidelines, even though it has to do with
03:44the refugee convention.
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