Civil servants condemn the “creation of a kind of police state” after introducing a draft law on the conviction of illegal immigrants

This is a very controversial bill in Sweden: it obliges Swedish civil servants to denounce illegal immigrants with whom they come into contact. This text is supported by the right-wing government in Sweden, which is allied with the far-right party, which wants to accelerate the expulsion of illegal immigrants at any cost. However, this bill faces very strong opposition even within the Swedish public services.

Officials have already called for “Civil disobedience”. “No one, no teacher, no school principal, no doctor, no nurse, no librarian, has committed himself to his profession to denounce !Joanna Jara Ostrand, head of the teachers' union, protests. “The police do their job, we do ours. “In a rule-of-law country like Sweden, it's important that everyone stays in their role.” She insists.

Condemning their unregistered patients is out of the question: 4,000 caregivers have signed a platform to denounce the proposed law, which contravenes the Hippocratic Oath. “It will have public health implications: serious illnesses if left untreated, the spread of infectious diseases…”“, explains Michele Le Foy, President of PICUM, an NGO that defends the rights of illegal immigrants. “Illegal immigrants are already marginalized, so such a proposal is very negative, and would be tantamount to creating a kind of police state.” She denounces.

The risks incurred by civil servants who do not comply with the reporting order have not yet been determined. The parliamentary fact-finding mission on this controversial bill will continue until the fall.