The new return centres would be built close to airports in Sweden, enabling those ordered to return to their home countries to be rapidly and efficiently put on planes. 

“Establishing a return centres will make it possible to send a clear signal that the asylum process has been completed and that from that point on return will be the main focus,” Sweden’s immigration minister Anders Ygeman said at a press conference on Thursday. 

The government has asked the Swedish Migration Agency to prepare a report on how to introduce the centres, to be delivered by January 15th in 2023. 

The agency has been asked to estimate how quickly the return centres could be opened, the likely cost of opening and operating a return centre, and how many places would be needed in these centers in the first phase, between 2023 and 2025. 

It has also announced a decision to appoint an “investigator” or utredare to look into ways to speed up the return of rejected asylum seekers and make the system more reliable. 

The investigator has been asked to look, among other things, at whether the police and the Säpo security police need to be given extra powers to help them enforce deportation orders, whether the limitation period for deportation orders needs to be increased, whether there needs to be better sharing of information between government agencies, and whether the Migration Agency should be allowed to take photos and fingerprints in more cases. 

The investigator has been asked to submit their report no later than 31 October 2023.