The Tidö Government Moves Forward with Mandatory Reporting

To combat the shadow society, which has been allowed to grow increasingly strong over the past decades, the government and the Sweden Democrats have decided to move forward with the mandatory reporting duty. This means that public officials are required to inform the police if they come into contact with illegal immigrants. The police are also given more tools.

At a press conference on Wednesday, among others, Minister for Migration Johan Forssell (M) and Ludvig Aspling (SD) presented a proposal to the Council on Legislation with new measures to increase the rate of returns and combat the shadow society, a priority during the current term.

To make it easier to locate illegal immigrants, they are pressing ahead with the obligation to provide information and are giving new tools to the police to check individuals and their identity.

The mandatory reporting obligation will cover six authorities, including the Swedish Tax Agency and the Swedish Social Insurance Agency. The Sweden Democrats had wanted the obligation to also apply to employees in healthcare, schools, and social services, but later withdrew that demand.

Currently, “reasonable grounds” are required for internal immigration checks to suspect that a person does not have the right to reside in the country. This is now being changed so that police can carry out more checks, and it will be enough for any reason to exist.

The police are also given additional tools to verify someone’s identity. House searches and body searches will be permitted in more cases, and a new measure is that mobile phones can be searched to find ID documents. Fingerprints and photographs may be taken and used in immigration matters in more cases than today.

The estimated number of people currently in the shadow society—including everyone from security threats and criminals committing serious offenses to vulnerable and exploited individuals—is over 100,000 and may be nearly double that number.

“For us to have good prospects for successful integration, it is essential to safeguard regulated immigration, where a yes means yes and a no means no,” says Minister for Migration Johan Forssell (M).

“This has not been a priority for previous governments, and now we see the consequences of that. Therefore, we are now providing the Police Authority with new and expanded powers that will increase the rate of returns and combat the shadow society.”

“If we do not address the shadow society, it will become entrenched and cemented.”

The press conference: