Swedish passports are sought after, both on the black market and by people who want to borrow a passport from someone they know.

Every year, tens of thousands of passports are blocked in Sweden. Last year, 63,501 passports were blocked, just over 700 more than the year before.

Emelie Lindvall, national process manager for police identity documents, says that the increase may be due to the change in regulations introduced in 2016. This means that Swedish citizens are granted a maximum of three passports during a five-year period, and if a provisional passport is needed, the regular passport is blocked.

The police have also introduced a new IT system that effectively revokes passports for people who have been in prison for at least one year.

– We see the fact that more passports are being blocked as a sign that the legislation has had an effect, says Emelie Lindvall.

Swedish passports are sought after, both on the black market and by people who want to borrow a passport from someone they know.

Before the rule change came into effect in 2016, there was no limit on how many passports one could apply for. During the five-year period from 2009 to 2013, 1,441 people were granted more than 5 passports, and one of them was issued with as many as 18 passports.

But according to a government investigation from 2015, this group was not responsible for any major part of the misuse of Swedish passports.

– There is a large misuse of Swedish passports, but unfortunately we have no figures on how common it is, says Emelie Lindvall.

Source: sverigesradio.se