Swedish parliament votes on tougher crime and migration rules

Swedish politicians are meeting for an extraordinary summer session to vote on major proposals concerning criminal justice and migration, SVT reports.

The measures include lowering the age of criminal responsibility, tightening conditions for family immigration, abolishing the youth sentence reduction and ending the multiple-offence discount.

Criminal responsibility age lowered

The government originally proposed allowing children aged 13 to be sentenced to prison for particularly serious offences, including murder, aggravated rape and aggravated weapons offences, for a five-year period.

The proposal was criticised by, among others, the Council on Legislation, which argued that it conflicted with the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child and would not achieve the aim of reducing youth crime.

The government withdrew the proposal in June after assessing that it would be rejected by parliament. It submitted a new proposal instead, lowering the age of criminal responsibility to 14 rather than 13. That is the proposal being put to a vote on Thursday.

The Left Party, Centre Party and Green Party oppose the proposal. The Social Democrats opposed the original proposal but will support the government’s revised version.

Tighter conditions for family immigration

The government is proposing, among other measures, that a residence permit based on a family connection to a person in Sweden should require that person to have had permission to stay in Sweden for at least two years. The financial support requirements for family immigration would also be tightened.

All opposition parties have submitted several reservations to the proposals. They argue, among other things, that two years is an excessively long and disproportionate period for families to remain separated in different countries.

Youth sentence reduction to be abolished

The youth sentence reduction, also known as the sentence discount, can currently result in milder sentences for people under 21 who are convicted of crimes.

Under the government’s proposal, the reduction would be abolished entirely for anyone who has reached the age of majority. The reduction for convicted children aged 15 to 17 would also be substantially reduced, particularly in cases involving serious crime.

The Left Party and Green Party oppose the proposal, saying the current rules need to be reviewed and evaluated further. The Social Democrats and Centre Party will vote in favour.

Multiple-offence discount to be removed

The multiple-offence discount means that people convicted of several offences at the same time are currently not given a sentence equal to the combined value of all the offences.

Removing the discount would result in longer prison sentences for people convicted of multiple offences. However, the Swedish Prison and Probation Service says there will not be enough prison places until at least 2040. As a result, the government has not proposed a starting date for the reform.

All opposition parties oppose the proposal. Several party representatives cite the lack of a starting date and the shortage of prison places in Sweden.

The Social Democrats have submitted their own proposal to remove the multiple-offence discount, initially focusing only on sex offences.