Sweden expects to expel up to 80,000 asylum-seekers whose applications have been rejected, the country's interior minister Anders Ygeman has announced.
Some163,000 migrants applied for asylum in Sweden in 2015. Photo: AFP
Mr Ygeman said charter aircraft would be used to deport the asylum-seekers over several years.
"We are talking about 60,000 people but the number could climb to 80,000," Mr Ygeman told Swedish media.
Some 163,000 migrants applied for asylum in Sweden in 2015, the highest per capita number in Europe.
Of the about 58,800 cases processed last year, 55 percent were accepted.
Earlier on Wednesday, Greece's government responded to allegations in a draft European Commission report that it had "seriously neglected" its obligations to control the external frontier of Europe's passport-free Schengen zone.
Greek government spokeswoman Olga Gerovasili accused the Commission of "blame games" and said it had failed to act on a programme agreed last year to relocate tens of thousands of migrants and refugees stranded in Greece.
Sweden recently introduced temporary border checks in a bid to control the influx of people. Along with Germany, the Scandinavian country is is a prime destination for refugees and other migrants entering the EU illegally.
Sweden earlier this week became the latest of a number of European nations to see tensions over migrants heightened by violence.
A 15-year-old asylum seeker was arrested in Molndal, near Gothenburg, after a 22-year-old asylum centre employee was stabbed to death.
Migration officials say 35,400 unaccompanied minors sought asylum in Sweden in 2015, five times the number in 2014.
Sweden had the highest per capita number of asylum applications of any European country in 2015. Photo: AFP
- BBC