It is a significant increase compared to 2023, when 39 people from the Schengen area were deported.
The police estimate that the deportations will lead to thousands of crimes being prevented in the future, according to SvD. A mapping of international theft gangs shows that they travel to Sweden on average four times a year and that each person commits around ten crimes per visit.
It's everything from stealing luxury cars to hundreds of shoplifting incidents, to stealing items from farms and construction sites, says Mats Berggren, head of the national border police unit, to the newspaper.
The provision in the Aliens Act gives the police the opportunity to intervene even before a person commits a crime. The tool has previously been used sparingly. But now the police have intensified their work on mapping foreign citizens who are believed to be in Sweden to commit crimes.
