Niklas' blog

Today Dagens Nyheter posted this article [in Swedish], where they uncover an utter act of insanity, performed by employees of The Swedish Migration Board.

This e-mail [in Swedish] was sent by Annica Ring, who works as Handling Officer at The Swedish Migration Board. Translated, the e-mail reads as follows (and believe me, most of the lingual errors are committed by the original author):

subject: Friday fun
body: Hello
On Friday we’re going to celebrate with [department] AM2 at 15,00, in their kitchen. I hope that you all can set aside fifteen minutes before that in our kitchen, when we are going to fulfil [person X's] promise of champagne when a certain family has left Sweden. Today I have had it confirmed, that the enforcement was carried out well even due to feet and hand-cuffs and police who were “smacked in a traditional way, using a hand-bag.
So, you’re very welcome to our kitchen at 14,45 for a toast.

//Annica

First, it’s not just a tad weird that a person working as Handling Officer for The Swedish Migration Board asks to celebrate a family being denied a stay in Sweden, but that she welcomes a toast to this, and by the way points out that “person X” is involved in this as well.

My questions, so far:

1) How can this/these person/persons still be allowed to work at The Swedish Migration Board?
2) As drinking in the work-place is not allowed at The Swedish Migration Board, why haven’t the people who drank been reprimanded for that? And why was it that not only Annica Ring, but that 19 of all the 21 persons who worked there that day, drank alcohol well past 15:00? This fact was “unveiled” by Dagens Nyheter, from examining the duty schedule.
3) Do the employees of The Swedish Migration Board ever drink during work-time to celebrate families that have been allowed to stay in Sweden?
4) Did Annica Ring shudder with well-being upon noting that shackles were applied to part of, or the entire family?

This story actually goes on. The day after said e-mail was sent, Annica Ring sent another e-mail, which is also published by Dagens Nyheter, right here [in Swedish]. Here’s my translation of this one:

subject: explanation on Friday fun
body: Hello
I just want to explain my e-mail yesterday. Of course we don’t celebrate that that family has left and in which way. What we celebrate is very painstaking work with getting work done together with the psychiatric health authority and the police. And as many surely know this hasn’t been all simple and we’ve spent a lot of work and time to forge a good connection with all players. I hope everybody has the possibility to come tomorrow 14.45.

//Annica

Mind you, that e-mail was written the day after the first one, i.e. before 19 of 21 employees at The Swedish Migration Board drank champagne – way past their work-day was finished – in “honoring” the family that has just been (possibly partly) shackled and thrown out of Sweden.

Are these people are supposed to work for us, and for people seeking to live in Sweden?

At first, one might think the second e-mail is a simple, badly done cover-up of what the first one was clearly stating – that some (or most, by the look of it) employees of The Swedish Migration Board are celebrating the fact that they’ve managed to throw a family, of which one member is a sick child (in need of help), out of this country– But wait. When asked about these e-mails, Annica Ring says the celebration didn’t concern their disposing of one specific family.

Is this a bad cover-up, yet?

Annica Ring adds that not all four bottles drunk at the celebration were actually champagne; “Russian champagne isn’t really a champagne”, she says, and adds she believes the two other bottles were a “Greek wine”, if she “remembers correctly”.

Oh, that makes all the difference, of course. Utter bollocks.

Ring ends the interview with Dagens Nyheter even worse than that, though, by adding that the celebration was due to their “cooperation with health authorities and the police” that she “hoped would benefit the family”.

Of course, they celebrate with champagne, whenever they’ve migrated them…out of the country, in shackles.

This scandal is the worst thing that could happen to The Swedish Migration Board, and so far, I don’t think they’ve done much to change what damage Annica Ring’s e-mails and this drinking binge (during work-time, mind you) has done to affect their new-found reputation.

In the coming days, we will see if they choose to remain a new-found disgrace, or regain consciousness by acting like a responsible, trust-worthy authority.

Despite Sweden being a monarchy, which basically means we give the Swedish royal family millions of Swedish Crowns every year in exchange for nothing, we are a strong democracy, so make sure you tell The Swedish Migration Board what you think about this: here’s their e-mail address, here’s their web page in Swedish and here it is, in English.

I have already written a letter to them, which I have published as a comment to this post. I will post every reply of theirs, and every reply of mine, totally unabridged.