legal and social conditions for asylum seekers and refugees in ...

Other categories of persons in need of protection
Following the 1996 amendments to the Aliens Act, asylum is no longer granted to de facto refugees
and so called “war-objectors”, unless they are covered by the refugee definition.
Instead of this, Chapter 3 Section 3 of the Aliens Act establishes three categories of persons in need
of protection:
1– Aliens who have a well-founded fear of being punished by death penalty or corporal punishment
or being subjected to torture or other kinds of inhuman or degrading treatment or punishment;
2– Aliens who need protection due to external or internal armed conflict or are unable to return to
their country of origin because of an natural catastrophe;
3– Aliens who have a well-founded fear of persecution for reasons of their gender or
homosexuality.
By analogy with the above-mentioned provisions on refugees, it is added that ”[a] stateless person
who for the same reason is outside the country of his former habitual residence and for the reasons
given in paragraph 1 [above-mentioned 1–3] cannot return to that country or, owing to fear, is
unwilling to return to that country, shall also be deemed an alien in need of protection”.
As Convention refugees, persons in need of protection are normally granted a permanent residence
permit.
According to Chapter 3 Section 8 of the Aliens Act, the Government may order that residence
permits may exceptionally no longer be provided to category 2) here above mentioned, in the event
of a mass influx which could not be absorbed.
Temporary protection
As a rule, asylum and protection granted to other categories than refugees imply a right to a
permanent residence permit.
However, in accordance with Chapter 2 Section 4a of the Aliens Act, the Government may order that
a group of asylum seekers be given temporary residence permits, if their need for protection is
considered to be temporary. Such decision is taken by ordinance and is subject to parliamentary
control.
In principle, the maximum duration of the temporary protection period is two years. However, if some
form of return programme have been established before the expiration of these two years, the
temporary residence permits may be extended for up to another two-year period.
Persons granted temporary protection are entitled to family reunification with their spouse and
children under 18 years of age and they may apply for a work permit.
On 15 April 1999, the Swedish Government published an Ordinance No. 1999/209 granting
temporary protection to Kosovo Albanians arriving to Sweden under the UNHCR Humanitarian
Evacuation Programme (about 3,800) or spontaneously, as well as those already in Sweden
whose asylum applications were still pending at that time.
According to this, Kosovo Albanians were considered to be in need of temporary protection and were
issued with a residence permit valid for 11 months, i.e. until 30 April 2000. The processing of their
asylum claims was not suspended but led to the granting of a temporary residence permit.
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