Swedish Migration Employee Reportedly Gave 121 Fake Visas To Migrants
Man suspected of working within a network or a potential people smuggling operation
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One of the employees for the Swedish Migration Board is facing charges for allegedly handing out false visas to 121 Afghan migrants, according to reports.
The yet to be identified employee is believed to have begun working for the agency in the mid-2000s, but prosecutors alleged that he carried out his crimes while he was employed at the Foreign Affairs Ministry, according to Aftonbladet.
The Migration Board had already suspended him in 2017 following a previous investigation that revealed he had changed nine rejected visa applications to acceptances while giving another 14 visas which should have been denied.
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The man is also suspected of working within a network or a potential people smuggling operation, as two other suspects where arrested in connection with the charges.
“The principal suspect is suspected of gross misconduct, the others for helping with that crime,” Fors said.
“There are 121 cases that are about right now.”
It is unclear whether the suspect was receiving money for giving out fake Visas, but Fors said she was unwilling to speculate as investigations were still ongoing.
According to : The prosecutor added that 21 of the Afghans applied for a travel visa claiming a company had invited them to a tennis tournament, but according to the Migration Board, the invites were forgeries and should have been recognized as such.
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The lawyer for the suspect said the man denies any crimes and said his client did not check the invitations enough.
Visas and residency permits granted under false pretexts have been an issue in several European countries in recent years.
In France, police were able to bust a ring of migrants from the Ivory Coast who were helping to forge identity documents to allow other migrants to claim to be underage asylum seekers, costing taxpayers nearly a million euros.
In 2017, several French doctors, along with four pro-migrant activists, were indicted on similar charges, after being accused of forging medical certificates to help asylum seekers remain in the country.
Last year, Sweden lost track of over 27,000 asylum seekers who failed to be granted citizenship and receiving expulsion orders from the country, 4,5000 of them were children.
A total of 223 underage asylum seekers have now been reported missing following the expulsion orders in January and February this year alone.
