Swedish police arrest 14 men suspected for planning an attack on asylum center

Swedish police have arrested 14 Polish far-right activists for allegedly planning to attack an asylum center, after finding knives, iron pipes and axes in their cars.

The men, aged between 20 and 35, were detained on Monday evening after reportedly being tipped off. The men were identified as far-right Polish citizens, some living in Sweden while others were only visitors.

According to Yahoo News, authorities said they believe the asylum center was the target of the attack, prompting Swedish officials to call for stepped-up security.

Three of the men were found to have been involved in last month's incident when dozens called for attacks on refugees. 100 men masked and dressed in all-black armbands and balaclavas gathered in central Stockholm, assaulting refugees and anyone not appearing to be ethnically Swedish.

The neo-Nazi group, Swedish Resistance Movement, said in a statement that the attacks served to clean up criminal immigrants from North Africa, handing out the "punishments they deserved".

Heightened tension in Sweden comes from the rising concern of overcrowded refugee facilities and an unsustainable number of arriving migrants.

In a report by BBC, Sweden, with a population of around 9.8 million, welcomed about 163,000 asylum seekers from Iraq, Syria and Afghanistan last year, placing it among the European Union states with the highest number by population size, making it the continent's worst migration crisis since World War II.

In 2013, Sweden took in Syrian refugees with many residents welcoming them. However some were frustrated with the government's move.

This year, Sweden anticipates 140,000 additional asylum seekers to enter its borders. However, the numbers arriving in Sweden have significantly fallen since the country was forced to tighten its border controls last November.