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Refugee guide

Housing for refugees in Sweden

Author Image The Newbie Team

January 7, 2024

Housing for refugees in Sweden seeking asylum are a little limited unfortunately. You basically have two options when it comes to housing. You can either…

  1. Stay at a reception unit/refugee camp (called ABO), or
  2. You can arrange your own housing (called EBO) and stay with relatives or friends.

Unaccompanied children* shall not live at the refugee camps. They will be assigned accommodation at a youth home for asylum seekers or in a family.

* Unaccompanied children are defined as children and teenagers under the age of 18 without parents or other guardian.

Stay at a reception unit

You should consider the following if you choose to stay at any of the units/camps provided by Swedish Migration Agency:

  1. You cannot choose where in Sweden you are going to stay. This might imply that you will have to stay far from friends and relatives.
  2. You may also need to move to a new location during the asylum decision period, due to a lack of space. Many asylum seekers find it stressful to relocate while waiting, yet it is difficult to arrange accommodation for all asylum seekers in Sweden at the moment.

If you have money, you must pay for the accommodation yourself, but if the Migration Agency can see that you have no money, you do not have to pay.

Arrange your own accommodation

Staying with relatives or friends is for many an attractive option. You stay in a more familiar context where you can get help with many day-to-day challenges. However, consider the following, if you choose to arrange your accommodation on your own, by for example staying with relatives or friends:

  1. You are responsible for the living costs.
  2. If you cannot stay at the accommodation that you arranged on your own, you are allowed to move back to a reception unit, where there is space available. Note, however that this might be far away from where you have been staying.
  3. You need to be reachable for the Swedish Migration Agency. Inform the reception unit and the Swedish Migration Agency of you new adress if you move to an accommodation that you’ve arranged on your own.

The following websites aims to match asylum seekers with Swedes who are interested in renting out at room in their home:

  • Refugees Welcome – a site where accommodation for refugees is arranged by matching refugees with locals.
  • Zamarit – a website in the making, aiming to connect asylum seekers in Sweden seeking accommodation with Swedes. The website is not active yet but it is worth to keep an eye on it.
More information at FARR

(information provided by FARR in English, scroll down to the Housing section),

More informaiton at the Migration Agency

Missing something? Or does something feel unclear? Contact us and help us improve.

Article Written by

The Newbie Team

The Newbie Team posts news, tips and general goodness that can be useful for all Newbies. We always try to find Newbie related information that will help all Newbies on their new life in Sweden. Please let us know if there is something you wish we'd write more about and we will try to add it to our repertoire.

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