File photo: Pontus Lundahl / TT

Lyssna: "The weather is cold"

As winter weather settles in, newcomers to Sweden are in need of suitable clothing and jackets, but bureaucracy stands between them and warmth, because by law, asylum seekers who need extra money to buy winter clothes have to get approval, and that takes time.

"Sweden is cold, we need jackets," Shaek Sarawi, from Afghanistan, told Swedish Radio News. He was wearing a lined hoodie in Malmö, which was blanketed with snow.

Asylum seekers get an allowance of a little over SEK 70 per day, or if they're getting both room and...