CRI听力:Sweden Faces Heavy Burden of Immigration

Sweden, a country with a first class public welfare system, is facing an increasingly heavy immigration burden.

There comes amid an outbreak of riots in the suburbs of the Sweden capital Stockholm. Most of the rioters are reported to be immigrant youths under the age of 20.

Local media has attributed the outbreak to the government's poor performance in coping with immigration issues and the integration of immigrants into local society.

Markku Aikomus is an officer with the Regional Office for Baltic and Nordic Countries.

"Sweden is one of the main countries to receive the refugees in our region. Also the other Nordic countries and Baltic countries receive as well. This year Sweden has received over 30,000 new asylum claims and that's sort of the 50 percent more than in previous year."

Recent statistics from the Swedish Migration Board shows around 54-thousand people have applied for residence permission in Swedish refugee camps in 2013.

That is a weekly rate of 1250-people since last September.

However, Sweden is capable of accommodating only about 500 to 700 new refugees per week, or around 30-thousand in a year.