Teachers, nurses, social workers, librarians… Now they can breathe. Supported by the Sweden Democrats (extreme right), the liberal conservative government is not going to force them to report undocumented immigrants found in the exercise of their profession. This is the main lesson of the government investigation presented on Tuesday, November 26, in the presence of the Minister of Immigration, Johan Forssell, by the former judge of the Stockholm Court of Appeal, Anita Linder.
How can we see this as anything other than a huge snub towards the Sweden Democrats? Since 2010 and its entry into parliament, the party has campaigned for municipal and regional employees, as well as officials in government agencies, to be forced to report illegal immigrants to the police. A measure that the far-right party defended alone, until the fall of 2022 and its alliance with the conservatives, the Christian Democrats and the liberals.
In the coalition agreement, known as Tidö, signed on October 14, 2022 by the four parties, there is the principle of a “obligation of information”presented as one of the emblematic measures of “paradigm shift” announced by the majority, in the areas of immigration and asylum. Coalition partners wanted to impose it on municipalities, responsible for managing schools and social services, and the 400 government agencies. The only exception provided: the health sector.
“The risks were too great”
But first it was necessary to conduct a government inquiry to determine the contours of the future law. Now, surprise: in its conclusions, presented on Tuesday, it recommends that employees of only six agencies (the tax office, social security, the debt recovery agency, the national employment agency, the Swedish Prison and Liberty Service Guarded and the Pensions Agency) are forced to contact the police, who can pass the information on to the immigration and intelligence services.
Personnel from educational establishments, health services, libraries and social services are excluded. “The risks were too great”observed M.me Linder: that people in an irregular situation no longer dare to seek treatment or send their children to school for fear of being reported; also that Sweden fails to respect its international obligations, including the Convention on the Rights of the Child, and its own laws.
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