This thesis explores the growing phenomenon of climate refugees and their right to protection. The aim is to investigate from the Human Security Approach developed by UNDP, if the human insecurities highlighted covers the situation of climate refugees making them eligible for protection. Thus, the purpose is to examine if insecurities caused by climate change are reason enough to be granted asylum in Sweden and if not, what the debate on extending asylum to climate refugees looks like. The research questions for this thesis are: What insecurities do the Swedish legislation consider grounds for granting asylum that could include the protection of climate refugees? and How do the debates in the Swedish Riksdag and the European Parliament discuss climate refugees and their legal status in Sweden's and the EU's asylum regulations? A qualitative content analysis of the Swedish Aliens Act and the Common European Asylum System (CEAS) revealed that even though all insecurities listed by the Human Security Approach are considered grounds for granting asylum, protection for climate refugees is not guaranteed. Consequently, debates in the Swedish and European Parliaments were examined to explore the intentions of extending the right to protection for climate refugees by including them in the legal framework. While the debates in the Swedish Parliament showed no indication of changing the legislation to include climate refugees, the European Parliament both debated and voted on proposals which sought to extend protection to climate refugees. Nonetheless, it is still not decided whether or not the EU will include climate refugees as a legal status in its asylum system.

In the year of 2013, Swedish media accused the Swedish police for the implementation of discriminatory internal controls of foreigners, in Malmö, Stockholm and other places across Sweden. The controls were soon to be linked to project REVA. In this thesis, I examine how the internal controls of foreigners measure up to the Swedish Aliens act and whether or not the accusations of discriminatory controls against individuals with a perceived foreign appearance, are correct. The examination includes a legal approach, where I use practical legal method to analyze the provisions of the Aliens act, as well as an evolving conceptual approach, where I evolve the concept of discrimination in order to apply it to the controls. I found that it is possible to link project REVA to the external work with the internal controls of foreigners, despite the denial from people involved. I also found that, because of unclear regulations regarding the implementation of the internal controls of foreigners, it is not possible to assess how the controls measure up to the Swedish Aliens act. Some of the controls, most probably, can be identified as directly and indirectly discriminatory. The problem with this statement is the difficulty to measure police officers decision-making in order to confirm the discriminatory behavior. However, I argue that it is possible to claim that the Aliens act might be indirectly discriminatory. The results of this thesis indicate that the Swedish police should review their practices regarding internal controls of foreigners.