Swedish Environment Minister Asa Romson has apologised after comparing the migrant tragedies taking place in the Mediterranean to the Nazi concentration camp at Auschwitz.

The Green MP passed the comment during a discussion on immigration in Sunday's SVT's Agenda. The Mediterranean Sea is the new Auschwitz, she said.

The statement was met by sharp criticism, including on social media:

"I wonder if Åsa Romson really knows what Auschwitz was really and truly stood for,” former Foreign Minister Carl Bildt wrote on Twitter.

The comment  “is ignorant and absurd”, said Lena Posner-Körösi, chairman of the Jewish Central Council in Sweden, Aftonbladet.

The other party leaders reacted over the statement.

It was not a good comparison, but I understand Jane's feelings, Prime Minister Stephen Löfven told the Swedish Television News after the program.

Åsa Romson said after the program that she had been affected strongly by drowning accidents in the Mediterranean, but that her comparison was not thought out.

“I used an expression that was not the best,” she said.

“In the heat of the moment, when you want to express an enormous frustration at the human violations that occur in the Mediterranean, it is hard to find the right expression,” she said.

But in her explanation, Romson made another blunder when she used the term Gypsies instead of Romanies.

“I am the first to apologize if there are any of the groups ..... Hitler's crimes against the Jews, the Gypsies, the homosexuals stand completely alone,” she said.