Sweden to deport up to 80,000 refugees

Sweden said it expects to expel up to 80,000 migrants whose asylum requests will likely be rejected, as another 18 people including children drowned off Greece Thursday in a desperate bid to reach Europe. As the continent grapples with efforts to stem a record flow of migrants, Swedish Interior Minister Anders Ygeman said the mass expulsions of people who arrived in the Scandinavian country last year would require the use of specially chartered aircraft and be staggered over several years. "We are talking about 60,000 people but the number could climb to 80,000," he told Swedish media, adding that police and migration authorities had been tasked with organizing the scheme. Of the 58,800 asylum requests handled by Swedish migration authorities last year, 55 percent were accepted. Many of those requests were, however, submitted in 2014, before the large migrant flow began. Ygeman said he used the 55 percent figure to estimate that around half of the 163,000 asylum requests received in 2015 would likely be rejected. Sweden, a country of 9.8 million, is among the EU states with the highest proportion of refugees per capita. More than 1 million people travelled to Europe last year - the majority of them refugees fleeing conflict in Syria, Iraq and Afghanistan - in the continent's worst migration crisis since World War II. Most cross by boat from Turkey to Greece and the United Nations says more than 46,000 people have turned up on the European Union member's beaches so far this year, while 170 people died making the dangerous journey. Flimsy boats packed with migrants are still arriving on Greek beaches every day, the passengers undeterred by Europe's cold wintry conditions. On Thursday, the bodies of 18 migrants, including nine children, were discovered off the Greek island of Samos after their boat capsized and 17 others were still missing, the Greek coastguard said, a day after seven other bodies were found near the island of Kos. With the influx showing little sign of abating despite the cold weather, many European countries - including Austria, Germany, Denmark, Sweden, France - have tightened their asylum rules in a bid to discourage new arrivals. Reflecting the mounting tensions, Brussels on Wednesday blasted Greece's handling of the crisis and warned it could face border controls with the EU's passport-free Schengen zone if it does not protect the bloc's frontiers. Athens is worried its border with Macedonia will be closed, leaving refugees trapped in the country.