Swedish Migration Agency employee asked asylum seeker for bribe ‘as a joke’

The employee allegedly asked an asylum seeker for payment in order to be assigned a caseworker at the agency, SVT Småland reported.

“There is no caseworker. If you give me 100,000 kronor I'll make sure to give you a caseworker,” the staff member reportedly wrote in an email.

The employee has said the email was written as part of a joke with a colleague and was sent by mistake. But the asylum seeker reported the email to the Migration Agency, which opened an internal investigation into the incident.

“I think we have taken responsibility on the issue. This behaviour is completely contrary to our values,” a manager at the agency told SVT.

The internal investigation concluded that the email was inappropriate, but noted that it was difficult to prove the intent behind the action, partly because the message didn't include any contact information.

The incident has now been passed on to the staff disciplinary board, while the employee has continued to work in the same role.

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