Sweden's failure to integrate vast numbers of immigrants 'led to gang violence'

'We live in the same country but in completely different realities,' PM says

Sweden's Prime Minister Magdalena Andersson said that 'integration has been too poor at the same time as we have had a large immigration'. AP

Sweden has failed immigrants for two decades, leading to parallel societies and gang violence, prime minister Magdalena Andersson said on Thursday.

Ms Andersson made her remarks during the announcement of a launch of a series of initiatives aimed at combating organised crime, saying that both Islamist and right-wing extremism had been allowed to fester in Sweden.

Many Swedes were shocked this month when violent riots erupted after a Swedish-Danish far-right politician burnt a Quran during a rally. More than 100 police officers were injured during the riots.

“Segregation has been allowed to go so far that we have parallel societies in Sweden. We live in the same country but in completely different realities,” Ms Andersson told a news conference.

The number of people in Sweden born abroad has doubled in the past two decades to two million, or one fifth of the population. Ms Andersson's Social Democrats have been in power for 28 of the past 40 years.

She said she wanted to introduce local youth crime boards, where social services and police could collaborate. She also proposed tools to make sure that youths stayed in schools and off the streets.

“Integration has been too poor at the same time as we have had a large immigration. Society has been too weak, resources for the police and social services have been too weak,” she said.

Sweden, which holds a general election later this year, has radically tightened its immigration policies since taking in more people per capita than any other European Union country during the migration crisis in 2015. It now has one of the bloc's most restrictive policies.

A police officer stands in front of a blazing bus, in southern Swedish city Malmo. AFP

Police detain a driver who drove a car into roadblocks where Rasmus Paludan, leader of Danish far-right political party Hard Line, was holding a demonstration, at Skanegarden, near Malmo. Reuters

Protesters set fire to a police minibus at Sveaparken, Orebro, south-central Sweden. Rasmus Paludan has been touring the country and at each gathering has attempted to burn a Quran. AP

Police vehicles next to a burning barricade in Malmo. AP

Protesters block a road with a bonfire in Norrkoping, eastern Sweden. AP

Cars are set ablaze in Norrkoping. AP

Police arrest a protester in Norrkoping. AFP

Riot police prepare to enter a shopping centre during protests in Norrkoping. AFP

Counter-protesters gather ahead of a demonstration planned by anti-Muslim politician Rasmus Paludan, in Norrkoping. Reuters

Human rights organisation Amnesty International has been critical of Sweden's tightening of policies, claiming it is causing human suffering and making integration even harder for immigrants.

There is speculation in Sweden that Rasmus Paludan, the far-right politician who burnt the Quran, is planning a run for political office in September.

He was previously barred from Sweden for two years after he burnt a Quran in 2020, but he bypassed the ban with a successful application for Swedish citizenship.