STOCKHOLM,
December 22, 2005 (IslamOnline.net & News Agencies) – Swedish
migration staff have celebrated the expulsion of a mother and her
three children, one of whom is severely sick, media reports have
revealed.
Toasting
with champagne and cake, officials of the Swedish Migration Board
celebrated the deportation of a Russian family, a mother and her three
children, Agence France-Presse (AFP) reported Thursday, December 22.
The
incident took place in the migration board's offices in March 2004,
revealed Sweden's newspaper of record Dagens Nyheter.
In
an email invitation to colleagues, a copy of which was published by
the daily, Liz Sandgren, the employ who organized the celebrations,
hailed the deportation of "our difficult woman. ... Let's
celebrate with cake and wish her and her children all the best in
their home country!"
One
employee told the paper that "We were invited to have cake and
coffee to celebrate the deportation of a family."
"It
is okay in the department to have this attitude, that a deportation is
something to celebrate," an employee told the paper.
"This
culture clearly exists, and there are also clearly racist tendencies
among part of the staff."
Resignation
The
revelation of immigration officials' ill-behavior has sparked furor in
Sweden, with calls for the resignation of Migration Board director
Janna Valik.
The
scandal also forced the celebrations' organizer, Sandgren, to resign
her post.
The
Swedish daily said that Sandgren was forced to tender her resignation
after the newspaper confronted the Migration Board with the
information.
But
the board insisted she chose to leave her job and had done so only
temporarily.
An
inquiry was launched into the incident by the Kristianstad office in
southern Sweden.
"She
(Sandgren) quit her job voluntarily for the duration of the inquiry.
She was not sacked," a Migration Board spokesman said, refusing
to comment on the reasons for her departure.
Another
head of department resigned from her job Thursday, according to Dagens
Nyheter's online edition.
The
resignation came after an interpreter tape-recorded her insulting a
33-year-old blind asylum seeker. The recording was played on Swedish
radio.
Swedish
television news has broadcast a recording of a case officer insulting
a blind asylum seeker.
When
the blind man says he is ready to commit suicide, the case officer
replies he can do as he wishes. She finally ordered him out of her
office, as her next appointment is waiting.
