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Sweden keeping location of refugee shelters secret

A firefighter working in the smoking remains of an accommodation home for asylum seekers near Munkedal, Sweden. (AP)

Stockholm – The Swedish Migration Agency said on Wednesday it would no longer publish the addresses of new refugee reception centres after a rise in suspected arson attacks targeting such buildings.

“The security situation has deteriorated and the many fires are a concern,” Willis Aberg of the Migration Agency’s accommodation unit told Swedish Radio news.

“We try to be an open agency, but at present we believe that it is better to classify details to reduce the threats,” he added.

Since March, at least 20 fires have been reported at current or planned refugee shelters.

No one has been injured in the incidents, and police have made no arrests. Most of the incidents were being investigated as suspected arson.

Two incidents were reported overnight on Wednesday. One involved a former kindergarten in the wealthy Stockholm suburb of Danderyd, but a security guard was quickly able to extinguish the fire.

The municipality had on Tuesday said the former kindergarten would in November temporarily house 70 asylum seekers.

“I am dismayed and disturbed,” Danderyd municipal councillor, Olle Reichenberg, said, adding that a new security assessment would be made.

“We still intend to open the planned shelter,” he added.

A stone and a bottle with flammable liquid was late on Tuesday thrown into a planned reception centre in Faringtofta, southern Sweden, but emergency services put out the fire.

Swedish authorities estimate that up to 190 000 people could apply for asylum this year, creating a shortage of housing.

Written by PH

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