Swedish populists call for crime-hit areas to be demolished
The populist Sweden Democrats party has called for the most severely crime-hit areas in Sweden to be demolished, and their populations moved elsewhere in a policy drawn from Denmark's controversial 'ghetto plan'.
The party said it wanted to first use urban planning strategies to "build away" crime-hit areas, but that if that fails, it believed the worst areas should be demolished, as has happened to apartment blocks in cities in Denmark.
"We need to look at demolitions as an alternative," the party's leader, Jimmie Åkesson, said at a press conference on Tuesday to launch measures to combat the so-called "parallel society".
He said that Sweden was "plagued by escalating serious crime", and that no other problem faced by society so severely diminished Swedes' freedom.
Other measures include bringing in so-called 'search zones' in areas badly affected by crime, or "culturally burdened", another measure taken from Denmark.
Search zones in Denmark have empowered the police to stop and search people on the street, on their bicycles, or in their cars, without the officer needing to secure a search warrant, or even having reasonable suspicion.
Danish police can then check people's possessions, search their bags, and even carry out a body search.
The Sweden Democrats said that police in visitation zones would also be able to raid flats and apartments in certain areas without needing to secure the normal permits.
Swedish authorities can then mount "dawn raids" on addresses where they have suspicion to believe that more people are living than are registered as doing so. Anyone then found to be living in Sweden without a residency permit would then be immediately deported.
The party also said that it wanted foreign citizens with "coordination numbers" or samordningsnummer to have biometric data such as their fingerprints and irises collected in the same way as those who receive national identity cards do.
"This is a question of locking up and in some cases deporting criminals who are a threat to society," Åkesson said.
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The party said it wanted to first use urban planning strategies to "build away" crime-hit areas, but that if that fails, it believed the worst areas should be demolished, as has happened to apartment blocks in cities in Denmark.
"We need to look at demolitions as an alternative," the party's leader, Jimmie Åkesson, said at a press conference on Tuesday to launch measures to combat the so-called "parallel society".
He said that Sweden was "plagued by escalating serious crime", and that no other problem faced by society so severely diminished Swedes' freedom.
Other measures include bringing in so-called 'search zones' in areas badly affected by crime, or "culturally burdened", another measure taken from Denmark.
Search zones in Denmark have empowered the police to stop and search people on the street, on their bicycles, or in their cars, without the officer needing to secure a search warrant, or even having reasonable suspicion.
Danish police can then check people's possessions, search their bags, and even carry out a body search.
The Sweden Democrats said that police in visitation zones would also be able to raid flats and apartments in certain areas without needing to secure the normal permits.
Swedish authorities can then mount "dawn raids" on addresses where they have suspicion to believe that more people are living than are registered as doing so. Anyone then found to be living in Sweden without a residency permit would then be immediately deported.
The party also said that it wanted foreign citizens with "coordination numbers" or samordningsnummer to have biometric data such as their fingerprints and irises collected in the same way as those who receive national identity cards do.
"This is a question of locking up and in some cases deporting criminals who are a threat to society," Åkesson said.
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