Coercive Measures against Minors in the Swedish Asylum Process: Legal Uncertainty, Ambivalence and Experiences of Intrusiveness

Asylum-seeking minors are viewed as particularly vulnerable but are still exposed to coercive measures permitted by law. This study analyses Swedish Police Authority and Swedish Migration Agency officials’ perceptions of coercive measures towards minors in the asylum process in light of the Swedish...

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Bibliographic Details
Published inNordic journal of social research Vol. 14; no. 1; pp. 1 - 21
Main Authors Hansson, Jonas, Eriksson, Malin, Hjertstedt, Mattias, Ghazinour, Mehdi
Format Journal Article
LanguageEnglish
Published 2023
Subjects
asylum-seeking minors
law
officials
police science
polisforskning
qualitative interviews
thematic analysis
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Summary:Asylum-seeking minors are viewed as particularly vulnerable but are still exposed to coercive measures permitted by law. This study analyses Swedish Police Authority and Swedish Migration Agency officials’ perceptions of coercive measures towards minors in the asylum process in light of the Swedish law, and raises minors’ own voices on their experiences of coercive measures. Qualitative interviews were performed with 1) officials at the Swedish Police Authority and Swedish Migration Agency who manage and use coercive actions against minors and 2) former minors with experiences of being subjected to coercive measures. Based on a thematic analysis, the results illustrate how the officials’ perceptions about coercive measures are characterized by uncertainty and ambivalence. The minors expressed the importance of how they were treated during the asylum process rather than the coercive measure as such. Swedish law regulating coercive measures needs clarifications to give sufficient guidance for practice.
ISSN:1892-2783
1892-2783
DOI:10.18261/njsr.14.1.6