Swedish transgender people who were forced to accept sterilisation, for legal recognition of their gender identity, under a now defunct law, have launched a lawsuit against the state.

On Monday, the group of 142 transgender people launched the lawsuit against the government, demanding 42.6 million kronor (£4 million) in compensation.

“Prime Minister Fredrik Reinfeldt has said that the government can’t apologize every time a group wants an apology, but last time I checked there weren’t tonnes of groups queuing up for an apology for being sterilized,” Aleksa Lundberg, a trans actress, told the Local.

The group have asked for 300,000 kronor (£30,000) each in compensation.

Sweden previously adopted a measure to pay 175,000 kronor (£17,000) to victims of forced sterilisation through a eugenics programme which was run between 1935 and 1996, however the law for transgender people was not changed until earlier this year.

A Stockholm court ruled in December that forcing transgender people to be sterilised breaches the European Convention on Human Rights, and that requirement was lifted in January at the end of an appeals period.

The people who accepted the stipulation to undergo sterilisation if they had gender reassignment surgery announced in February that they were planning to sue the government,