About 5,000 Bosnian Croat refugees threatened with deportation will be permitted to stay temporarily in Sweden, the immigration minister indicated Thursday.

Swedish TV reported that the refugees will be given temporary residence permits of up to one year. A formal decision is to be taken Friday, Immigration Minister Leif Blomberg said.

“Because of the current situation in the former Yugoslavia, it is impossible today to send people back to Croatia,” Blomberg said in a statement.

Plans to deport the refugees had stirred much controversy. Charity organizations, joined by the state Lutheran church, helped hide hundreds of the refugees in homes and churches across Sweden.