SEK 4550 SEK is how much the Migration Board units receive as extra money in their budget for each person deported from Sweden. The more efficient a Unit is on the execution of deportations, the more money they earn. For every person who may be deported the Migration Board Unit earns SEK 4550 for extra budget.
– It is not a premium, there is a way to assess the need for labor, says Bernt Lundqvist, Controller of Immigration Service.
A unit that registers a person in their computer system gets SEK 1 500 for handling the case. When a penalty is enforced, or if a person is granted a residence permit, a unit earns 4 550 extra in their budget.
If a person leaves after a decision on expulsion, the Unit gets nothing even though the case is handed over to the police. The money comes only when the police find the person and they execute the expulsion. The fact that a person is underground is thus negative for the budget.
– For units to have a right budget as much as possible, we have a model that consists of a fixed part and a varied part, explains Bernt Lundqvist, Finance Director at the Board.
The Immigration Service introduced the new system with a varied, performance-based portion of the budget in 2012. Because it is rather new, an evaluation has not yet been made.
Have you received any criticism internally?
– It has been discussed whether the model is good or bad. Some feel that the old model was better.
The varied portion accounts for 25 percent, while the fixed budget is for the rest. Wage increment is not controlled by the varied part, they are governed by the usual bargaining agreement.
Frida Sundkvist
About the Author
‘Those who don’t have a right to stay must leave’
Published: 13 Mar 13
While admitting there were questions about methods used by police in Stockholm that some labelled as “racial profiling”, Justice Minister Beatrice Ask nevertheless defended the need to carry out deportations.
“Police should follow existing rules and laws. But those who don’t have a right to stay need to leave the country,” Ask said in a parliamentary debate on Tuesday.
Stockholm police have come in for criticism for targeting “foreign-looking” commuters on the city’s public transit system in an effort to track down and deport illegal immigrants.
The efforts have been carried out under the so-called Reva project, which stands for Rättssäkert och effektivt verkställighetsarbete (Legal and effective execution of policy).
Last week, Stockholm border police said they would stop asking commuters for identification, but Ask emphasized the importance of carrying out deportation orders.
“Sweden is one of the countries in Europe that accepts the highest number of asylum seekers and that gives the most people protection from violence and persecution,” she said.
“For that to be possible in the long term, people who have gone through a judicial review and been found not to be in need of protection need to leave the country.”
In response, Social Democrat Sara Karlsson questioned whether police should prioritize deportations when their clearance rate was so low for many serious crimes.
“At this point, the government is pushing the police to prioritize deportations, and that’s totally inappropriate,” she said during the Riksdag debate.
“There are many people who have told of being stopped because of their appearance. That’s racial profiling, discrimination plain and simple. It’s not only unpleasant, it’s illegal.”
Ali Esbati of the Left Party asked whether the government should be held accountable for how people who happened to have darker skin are treated by police.
Ask responded by explaining that people shouldn’t be subject to ID checks simply because they are brown-eyed or “speak oddly, that’s to say, not Swedish” but that border police have now stopped carrying out such checks in the Stockholm metro.
“But when a decision is taken those who don’t have reason to stay must go home, no matter how difficult it is. Otherwise we won’t have the ability to take care of those who have the right to stay,” the justice minister said.
TT/The Local/dl
Reinfeldt defends migrant deportation push
Published: 18 Mar 13
Prime Minister Fredrik Reinfeldt on Sunday defended recent efforts by police to identify and deport immigrants who remain in Sweden illegally.
“Those who have been denied entry or received deportation orders should leave the country,” Reinfeldt told Svergies Television (SVT) on Sunday.
“Should people be allowed to stay simply because they go into hiding for a few weeks? That would be a very strange society.”
The prime minister’s comments come in response to an ongoing debate in Sweden about law enforcement’s approach to carrying out deportation orders.
Critics have accused police in Stockholm of racial profiling in asking “non-Swedish looking” commuters for identification. Others have questioned whether police should be prioritizing deportation order enforcement over traditional law enforcement operations.
While police announced earlier in March that they had abandoned random ID-checks, thousands took to the streets to protest the initiative, known as the Reva project, which stands for Rättssäkert och effektivt verkställighetsarbete (‘Legal and effective execution of policy’).
The debate gained new life last week when Swedish author Jonas Hassen Khemiri published an open letter in the Dagens Nyheter (DN) newspaper challenging Justice Minister Beatrice Ask to “change skin” with him.
The article generated was widely shared on social media and prompted many to share their experiences of being victimized by what Khemiri referred to as Sweden’s “structural racism”.
When asked about the article, Reinfeldt refused to comment specifically on the controversial methods other than to point out that police have said the tactics are no longer in use.
“I’m not here to discuss matters related to police operations, I’m responsible more for making laws,” he said.
Reinfeldt added, however, that since 2009 the government has pushed immigration and law enforcement authorities in Sweden to do a better job of enforcing deportation orders.
According to the prime minister, no party in the Riksdag is currently in favour of open borders, although the proposal has been discussed recently within the Centre Party.
“I want to be clear that I’ve told the police that in Sweden, everyone is equal before the law,” he said, adding he sees no reason to change Sweden’s laws.
“If you’ve been rejected in a country with the most generous asylum and migration rules in the entire developed world, I think you should respect the decision,” Reinfeldt said.
The Local/dl
Billström sparks ‘blonde, blue-eyed’ outrage
Published: 18 Mar 13
Migration Minister Tobias Billström unleashed a storm of criticism on Monday with comments that people who help illegal immigrants in Sweden are rarely “blonde and blue-eyed”.
In an interview published in the Dagens Nyheter (DN) newspaper, Billström offered his comments about people who help those who’ve had their asylum requests rejected stay in Sweden.
“Sometimes we have this image that people in hiding live with a nice Swedish lady in her fifties or sixties who wants to help,” Billström told DN.
“But that’s not how it is. Most of them live with their countrymen who aren’t at all blonde and blue-eyed.”
The comments, published as part of a wider interview about rejected asylum seekers who remain in Sweden illegally, were quick to prompt harsh criticism from several quarters.
Göran Hägglund, leader of the Christian Democrats called the statements “inappropriate”, while Social Democrat MP and integration policy spokeswoman Ylva Johansson took to Twitter to describe Billström’s formulation as “unpleasant and dangerous”.
Hägglund’s colleague, Christian Democrat migration policy spokeswoman Caroline Szyber, also expressed her concern about Billström’s statements.
“Migration minister: ‘blonde and blue-eyed don’t hide refugees’. What sort of view of humanity is that?” she wrote on Twitter.
Green Party migration policy spokeswoman Maria Ferm told Svergies Television (SVT) that Billström’s comments were “alarming”.
“I think it’s alarming every time we divide people – and it’s totally irrelevant how people who hide refugees look,” said Ferm.
“I’m worried about the direction the Moderates seem to be going these days. For example, talking about ‘reducing immigration volumes’. That goes totally against the agreement we have to make migration policy more open and humane.”
The head of the youth wing of Billström’s own Moderate Party also slammed the him for expressing himself in an “unacceptable” manner.
“I really don’t understand what hair and eye colour have to do with any of this,” Erik Bengtzboe, mead of the Moderate Party youth wing MUF told the Svenska Dagbladet (SvD) newspaper.
“I think he needs to take a close look and think about what he says, how it’s interpreted, and apologize.”
Another Moderate politician, Oliver Rosengren, who serves on the local council in Växjö in south central Sweden called for Billström to resign.
“I’m so ashamed I want to vomit over your bizarre statements,” Rosengren wrote on Twitter.
“I’m booking a train ticket to Stockholm. If Billström hasn’t resigned before the day is over I’m going to drag him out of Rosenbad,” he continued, using a common term to describe Sweden’s government offices.
Christina Höj Larsen of the Left Party called Billström’s statements “concerning”, saying they “contribute to structural racism” in Sweden, she told SvD.
Liberal Party (Folkpartiet) leader Jan Björklund said clumsy statements by Billström put the government’s immigration and asylum policy agreement with the Green Party at risk.
“I’m concerned now that statements going in all directions threatened the deal. Both the Green Party and from the migration minister have made statements that risk the credibility of the agreement,” Björklund told the TT news agency on Monday.
Billström’s statements to DN “didn’t make things any easier”, Björklund added.
Despite withering criticism from nearly all parts of the political spectrum, Billström found sympathy for his statements from the anti-immigrant Sweden Democrats, with Kent Ekeroth, the party’s judicial policy spokesman, hailing the minister’s “common sense”.
“So he likes mass immigration, but he’s got the right attitude,” Ekeroth wrote on Twitter.
Sweden Democrat leader Jimmie Åkesson said he didn’t think Billström “meant any harm” with the blonde hair, blue-eyed formulation.
“Efforts to hide people without permits often doesn’t involve citizens driven by goodwill. It may involve networks who earn lots of money by letting these people work for low wages under slave-like conditions,” Åkesson said in a statement.
With criticism showing no sign of abating, Billström was forced to issue an apology around lunchtime on Monday.
“I want to apologize for what’s in today’s DN. I understand that people have been upset over this formulation,” he told TT.
He added that he wasn’t misquoted in DN, explaining it’s difficult to describe Sweden’s “shadow society” and that he wanted to highlight the risks faced by people in hiding.
When questioned about his use of “blonde and blue-eyed” in his description, Billström confessed he “expressed himself poorly”, but refused to admit that it was a racist statement, as some critics had charged.
“I can say that formulating myself in the way I did, that leads in the wrong direction and I’m sorry for that,” he said, nevertheless emphasizing the need to talk about Sweden’s “shadow society” and the dangers that come with it.
“It’s politically relevant to talk about these issues and that was the main point of the interview. But I expressed myself stupidly in this article. Because appearance isn’t relevant.”
He added that he fully backs a government bill that would give the children of undocumented migrants and unaccompanied minors the right to attend school in Sweden, something that the article in DN indicated he didn’t support.
TT/The Local/dl