Sweden Democrats Open Door to Shutting Down the Migration Agency

STOCKHOLM - The Sweden Democrats are now prepared to see the Swedish Migration Agency shut down altogether.

Jessica Stegrud, the party's migration policy spokesperson, told the magazine Fokus that the agency may have to be dismantled and its duties handed to entirely new organisations.

"So yes, it is not impossible that you have to start over from the beginning," she said.

The last straw was a spy scandal. A unit manager at the agency was reported to police on suspicion of unauthorised access to sensitive registers. According to Stegrud, the manager has links to a former employee who was fired after contacts with Iranian intelligence.

READ ALSO: Iran Spy Leak Widens - Migration Agency Manager Suspended

Permits sold, identities unproven

In an op-ed in Aftonbladet, Stegrud also pointed to a 2024 case in which a caseworker was suspected of selling residence and work permits. The agency reviewed eight cases involving 41 people. In seven of them, permits had been granted on false grounds.

The routine checks are no better, she argues. Citing the Swedish National Audit Office, she writes that in nearly a third of approved citizenship cases the applicant had not been able to prove their identity.

Employers that the agency itself had flagged as dishonest have still been granted work permits for their staff.

Stegrud compared a restart to what is already planned for the National Board of Institutional Care, the much-criticised authority running Sweden's secure youth homes, whose tasks a state inquiry has recommended moving to a new agency.

"Born in Sweden"

Since 2021, only Swedish citizens may decide citizenship cases. Officials who decide on residence permits face no such requirement. Stegrud has already proposed that every job at the agency should require Swedish citizenship.

Now she goes further. "I have also opened up to the idea that you must be born in Sweden," she said.

She also questions whether caseworkers should handle cases involving a country they come from or have other ties to - and wants to test whether such a link should in itself count as a conflict of interest.

READ ALSO: Iran Spy Scandal: Sweden Democrats Want Only Citizens at the Migration Agency

The National Audit Office is currently reviewing how the agency prevents conflicts of interest and other irregularities. Its findings are due in December.