Human Rights in Practice: A Qualitative Study of Local Civil Society Organizations’ Perspectives on Sweden’s New Asylum Accommodation System

Sammanfattning

Historically regarded as a champion of international human rights, Sweden has in recent years faced increasing criticism for failing to uphold the fundamental rights of asylum seekers. Previous studies have shown that ASFs are particularly vulnerable to human rights violations within asylum accommodation settings, while local CSOs play a crucial role in delivering frontline services and rights advocacy in these contexts. This study explored the perspectives of local CSOs on Sweden’s new asylum accommodation system in relation to ASFs and human rights. An interpretive descriptive qualitative design was employed, based on seven semi-structured interviews with local CSOs working directly with ASFs in asylum accommodations across different Swedish municipalities. The study’s thematic analysis revealed CSOs’ perceive the new asylum accommodation system as intentionally restrictive and as a state signal discouraging ASFs in Sweden. Criminalization and surveillance of ASFs emerged as central themes in their assessments of the new system’s measures’ outcomes, although some CSOs expressed cautious optimism about the system’s potential to improve asylum process efficiency. The accommodations’ living conditions were described as material realizations of the state’s anti-immigrant sentiment, with its segregated and confined spaces restricting their freedom of movement, privacy and everyday family life. They emphasized the heterogeneity of ASFs, noting that their understanding of rights are shaped by intersecting vulnerabilities across migration journeys. The CSOs described a dissonance between their own understanding of human rights and their realization in practice, where ASFs’ access to rights is often conditional to state and societal perceptions of them being “Swedish enough”. The study concluded that local CSOs perceive Sweden’s new system for asylum accommodation as an indication that the country is shifting from a rights-based approach toward securitized asylum governance. They hold the perception that the Swedish state exercises control over asylum governance through restrictive legislation, administration, and service provision that encroach upon ASFs’ right to non-refoulement, health, privacy, freedom of movement and family life within asylum accommodations.