Är ID-kontrollagen (2015:1073) i konflikt med flyktingarnas rättigheter?

Abstract

In December 2015 the Swedish Parliament passed a law that gave the Government extensive rights to limit the high flow of refugees/migrants coming into Sweden that autumn. The impact of the law could potentially impact the refugees and their rights. The purpose of this Master’s thesis is to investigate how the Government and the other parties argued for and against the law and to what extent they considered the impact on Human Rights. The law contains the loaded term “national security”. A term that many people find threatening and is often used in the context of terrorism. In many places the term is rephrased as internal security without being given a precise definition. It is argued that the threat must be viewed in a wider perspective without being too specific. It is also argued that Sweden has received an unproportionally high level of refugees/migrants compared to most other EU countries and wants to obtain a fairer distribution of the burden. These aspects are analysed using Argumentation Analysis and generating pro and contra-lists on two central documents from debate in the Swedish Parliament. The conclusion is that the Government could not justify the threat to the Nation nor the internal security. The situation described is not related to national security but to the safety of refugees and, indirectly, to public order or internal security. None of the opposition parties made a reference to national security, but four of the six opposition parties agreed that the ID check was needed to improve the situation. However in the autumn of 2015 there were tendencies of unrest in the general population. The impact on the refugees/migrants and their rights were only just debated. But it was a consensus that Sweden should seek a fairer distribution of the refugees/migrants in the EU.