Around New Year, the police gave the Migration Board the right to deploy security guards at around 30 accommodation centers, citing, among other issues, assaults with or without knives, blackmail, intimidation, fights between asylum applicants, vandalism and suicide threats. According to a recent survey by the police, competent security guards are compulsory in a larger number of places than the Migration Board had previously identified.
"Security guards must be either on the spot or be able to visit accommodations on a regular basis. This will create a soothing and calming effect in the event of a disturbance," Mats Kirestam said.
The Swedish police, which at present suffers from severe understaffing and a drastic lack of funds, acknowledged that it was increasingly dependent on non-staff security guards to uphold safety and security.
"The security guards will mostly work for preventive purposes, but they will also have an opportunity to intervene and the power to take care of troublemakers," Mats Krisestam said.
Remarkably, Swedish media tends to be rather overzealous in its eagerness to enforce its ethical rules. According to house rules in the mainstream Swedish media, stressing a person's ethnic origin or nationality should be avoided if "not pertinent" to the case, which most often leads to foreign culprits being portrayed as "Swedes."
