"I think we need to think outside the box, and we are ready to support political initiatives in Europe for example, to have in certain situations distribution quota forms," as “it is clear that the system today is not working properly."

European legislation provides that refugees make their application for asylum in the country they first set foot in. But Italy and Greece, who see the boats arrive on their shores overloaded, feel they have not the means to apply this rule, and refugees generally wish to go further north.

The idea was received positively by the three Swedish ministers attending the same press conference, Stockholm has been advocating for many years that the European countries hosting fewer refugees become more open.