Tolerant Sweden Struggles to Cope With Migrant Tide; Orban Warns of Threat

Sweden said on Thursday it expected up to 190,000 migrants this year, putting unprecedented strain on a country famous for welcoming refugees but planning to house many in tents this winter.

At the opposite pole of the angry debate on the migration crisis, Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban urged European leaders to change their immigration policies and consult voters, or face a threat to the democratic order.

Thousands of refugees continued to pour into Slovenia in the hope of reaching prosperous northern Europe, and the tiny country appealed for other European Union states to send police to help manage the flow.

Europe is struggling to cope with its biggest wave of migrants since World War Two. According to the International Organization for Migration, more than 670,000 people have arrived by sea this year, fleeing war zones and poverty in the Middle East, Africa and Asia.

Sweden’s Migration Agency said more than 30,000 of the 140-190,000 people it expected in 2015 would be unaccompanied children. Such numbers are much higher, as a proportion of Sweden’s population of under 10 million, than even the 800,000-plus expected by Germany.

“We have seen pictures of people who are literally walking from Greece across the Balkans to Germany and on to Sweden,” agency head Anders Danielsson told reporters.

The agency said it would need an additional 70 billion Swedish crowns ($8.41 billion) over the next two years to cope.

ATTACKS

Polls show most Swedes still welcome refugees, but there have been attacks on asylum centres. The anti-immigrant Sweden Democrats party is set to launch an advertising campaign in foreign media to discourage people from coming.

Polls give the party around 20 percent support, up from 13 percent in the last election in autumn 2014.

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