Former Swedish Prime Minister Fredrik Reinfeldt has claimed that the large-scale influx of asylum seekers to Sweden is a blessing for the country, comparing them to couples having new children.

The former Swedish leader, who led the country from 2006 to 2014, compared the influx of asylum seekers to having children, saying: “Those who were first seen as a cost will become the best investment of your life,” Expressen reports.

Reinfeldt defended his longtime pro-mass migration views saying that Sweden “has been a country of immigrants. A country that has been open to people who came from all over the world, who entered our society and became part of our country, called themselves Swedes and helped build welfare with their efforts and work.”

When confronted with the fact that the Swedish budget costs for migrants were more than the costs for the entire armed forces, Reinfeldt once again compared asylum seekers to new children saying: “I want to emphasise that there are very few who bring children into the world who say, ‘I’m really doubtful because it’s quite expensive to have children, what should they be good for? Should you put up with these costs in the first few years? There are many diapers and so on.'”

The total cost of the migrant crisis for Sweden has been estimated to be as high as 14 times the military budget by Stockholm University associate professor Jan Tullberg.

Anti-Migration Sweden Democrats Once Again Largest Party In Latest Opinion Poll https://t.co/Afki4yXD9z pic.twitter.com/6bRDlOkaGJ — Breitbart London (@BreitbartLondon) January 22, 2016

The former prime minister also criticised the change in the migrant policy of the current government, claiming they were doing so out of fear of the rise of the anti-mass migration Sweden Democrats.

Earlier this week, the leader of the Sweden Democrats Jimmie Åkesson slammed the Swedish Migration Board, saying they should be more focused on deporting illegals and accused employees of engaging in activism.

“I said in my speech yesterday that we do not need more asylum immigration, we need rather a net return. That is, many of those who have come here and do not need protection, who have no obvious reason to stay here and live on Swedish taxes, they will return to the country they came from,” he said.