Sweden’s government could face a defeat in the final day of parliamentary voting of the term, as an opposition MP said the four parties planned to unite to reject a proposal requir…

Sweden’s government could face a defeat in the final day of parliamentary voting of the term, as an opposition MP said the four parties planned to unite to reject a proposal requiring foreigners to wait more than two years before bringing close relatives to Sweden. Sweden's parliament is returning for a special summer session on August 12th and August 13th to vote through 13 bills that the government would otherwise not manage to pass before the end of its parliamentary term. On the family reunion bill, on which parliament will vote on August 13th, the four opposition parties – the Social Democrats, the Centre Party, the Left Party, and the Green Party – have agreed to unite around two proposals. The first is a Social Democrat motion filed last month which would impose a shorter (one-year, instead of of two-year) waiting period before foreigners in Sweden can bring relatives. The second is a Green Party motion to scrap a clause in the government's bill requiring foreigners to meet housing and self-sufficiency requirements when renewing family reunion permits. READ ALSO: Swedish government announces stricter requirements for family immigration Annika Hirvonen, migration spokesperson for the Green Party, said that if the opposition succeeds in defeating the government on the two proposals, it would prevent unnecessary hardship for countless families. "If the law is passed the way the government has put it forward, families that already live together in Sweden are going to be torn apart, and that is unacceptable," she said, of the proposed introduction of a maintenance and housing requirement for extending family reunion permits. "Families will not feel safe in Sweden until they are Swedish citizens, because there is no permanent residency anymore [for asylum-seekers]. So they will live in fear," she added. "This will have impact, of course, on mental health, but also on people's ability to claim their rights with employers, because their employers will have power over whether their children are able to stay in the country."