The work of the Migration Board is greatly affected by the spread of the corona virus worldwide. Persons who have obtained a residence permit in Sweden and are abroad cannot enter Sweden because of the entry ban. Quota refugee journeys are also postponed.

At the same time, it is difficult to carry out deportations of people who have to leave the country.

- It happens to a very small extent. We had a few people last week who were deported and returned by themselves. But forcible deportation is very difficult right now, says Mikael Ribbenvik, Director General of the Migration Board.

The Migration Board currently has around 5,000 so-called open active cases, people who could return to their home countries today. But because of closed borders in the home countries and travel bans that stop air travel, many of them cannot return.

The cases that have been handed over to the police, so-called forced expulsions, are also affected.

"There are very many countries that have completely closed their borders, like Morocco, and other countries, like Afghanistan, have said that for some time to come they will not accept any non-voluntary return," says Patrik Engström, head of the Border Police Section at Noa.

"The situation is difficult to assess"

In addition to closed limits, the greatly reduced number of routes makes it more difficult.

- We can compensate for this by chartering aircraft. It is very cheap because no one flies, but which countries receive a lot of influence.

The police department has around 17,000 deportation cases, of which about 12,000 people have disappeared, according to Patrik Engström.

- So we have about 4,500 deportation cases that we can work on, in 40 different countries and the situation in these countries is constantly changing. This is what makes the situation so difficult to assess.

Criminals are prioritized

The police cannot say how much of the deportations will be delayed in the future, but the authority has a dialogue with the countries to find solutions in the individual cases. For example, some countries are more likely to open the borders to people convicted of crimes.

- We prioritize cases with people who are active in crime, says Patrik Engström.

But already, the police have begun to release people who were in custody pending deportation.

- If we cannot carry out the deportation, we should not have people in custody. Then we can cancel the repository and then the person can report to the police instead of with some regularity.