Published 4 June 2024 at 13.40
Domestic. Since last November, the number of immigrants returning to their home countries by charter flight has increased from an average of 18 to 30 people per trip. This is as a result of three authorities now working in one operation centre.
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In order to streamline the processing, staff from the Swedish Migration Agency, the Norwegian Police Agency and the Swedish Probation Service have worked together in a so-called operation center in the Swedish Migration Agency's premises in Sundbyberg.
– The aim is to sharpen our abilities in both daily work and strategic planning. Through our new way of working, contacts will be both easier and closer. We also get a better joint focus in the task we received from the government to increase returns, says Sara Åhman, head of department at the Swedish Migration Agency.
An evaluation shows that the co-location led to smoother handovers of cases from the Migration Agency to the Police Authority, that the occupancy of the Migration Agency's detention center increased, that the planning of enforcement trips and that the occupancy of chartered flights improved. The co-location is therefore to be extended until the end of the year.
– The co-location facilitates common priorities and increases understanding of each other's work, says police chief Mats Berggren, nationally responsible for the police effort, on the police's website.
The number of people returning to their home countries by chartered flight has increased from an average of 18 to 30 people per trip during the period the operation center has been operating, from November 2023 to May this year. During the same period, the Norwegian Prison Service's national transport unit, NTE, has executed around 1,700 people, of which 250 by charter. Chartered flights refer to trips where an aircraft is hired to take the returning persons to one and the same destination.
The persons who are not executed by chartered flight, i.e. the majority of the persons who return with the police as processing authority, travels by scheduled flight. Such trips can take place with or without an escort of personnel from NTE.
– The collaboration provides a long-term perspective in the planning, which makes it easier for the three authorities to deploy resources at the right time to get the best results. We share the same operational situational picture and can make adjustments at the moment if necessary, says Joacim Trybom who is head of the National Transport Unit at the Prison Service.