Iran Spy Leak Widens - Migration Agency Manager Suspended

STOCKHOLM - A manager at the Swedish Migration Agency has been suspended and reported to the police, suspected of illegally accessing the agency's classified records.

The manager is alleged to have run a large number of unauthorised searches in the agency's secret register. It is the latest twist in what Swedish media call the Iran leak - the case of a caseworker who was fired after the Swedish Security Service found he had spent years in close contact with Iranian intelligence agents and passed on information about Iranian exiles living in Sweden.

The suspicions against the manager surfaced during an internal review the agency launched after the Security Service raised the alarm about the caseworker. The manager lost their security clearance and was suspended with immediate effect.

The agency has filed a police report and a preliminary investigation is under way. According to the broadcaster TV4, which broke the story on Sunday evening, the manager has ties to the fired caseworker.

The prosecutor leading the investigation declined to comment on the connection, citing investigative secrecy. The Migration Agency also declined to comment, calling it an ongoing personnel matter.

In internal documents, however, the agency describes the conduct as very serious - and says it weighs especially heavily because it involves an experienced manager in a position of trust.

"The conduct constitutes a serious disregard for lawfulness, judgement and respect for the agency's rules on information handling and the safety of applicants," the Migration Agency writes.

Met the spy in shopping malls

The caseworker, who has an Iranian background, was hired by the Migration Agency in 2016. That same year he made contact with an Iranian intelligence officer working under diplomatic cover at Iran's embassy in Stockholm - an officer who, according to the Security Service, was mapping regime critics in Sweden.

The two messaged, phoned and met regularly. By the caseworker's own account, they met at his workplace and every other week at shopping centres such as Mall of Scandinavia outside Stockholm.

On one occasion the caseworker handed over the name of a colleague who was about to start work at Sweden's embassy in Tehran. He is also alleged to have sent photos of the inside of Iranians' passports to the top leadership of the Bandidos motorcycle gang.

The intelligence officer was eventually expelled, but an Iranian agent from his circle took over the contact. Security Service surveillance revealed thousands of contacts between the agent and the caseworker, who according to the service leaked data from the Migration Agency's records on people of Iranian origin. That agent was expelled in 2022.

Court sided with the agency

The Migration Agency fired the caseworker in February 2025, finding he had been disloyal to the Swedish state. He denies everything and claims he is in fact a critic of the regime.

He sued to get his job back but lost in the Solna District Court in June. The court found that the Iranian regime's interest in information about regime critics and Kurds in Sweden was a recurring theme - as was the caseworker's willingness to help the regime obtain it.