The Swedish Migration Agency is to close its contact centres, with the functions moved to the national government service centres which already handle face-to-face meetings for the Tax Agency. Sara Åhman, the agency's director for national operations, told us how she hopes the change will benefit applicants.

The Migration Agency announced on Tuesday that from New Year's Day, it would no longer accept drop-in visits from applicants at any of its 11 service centres, and that the centres would successively be shut down.

Their function