Classified information may have been lost during Migration Agency’s downsizing
A review carried out by the Swedish National Audit Office shows that during the downsizing of the Migration Agency between 2017 and 2020, phones and computers that may have contained classified information disappeared. This was one of the fastest and largest reductions in Swedish public administration in years, and the review by the National Audit Office aims to examine what the impact of the reduction was.
In its statement, the auditors write that it is particularly serious that the Swedish Migration Agency lacked sufficient routines and controls for IT equipment that may contain classified information.
“Lack of documentation means that it is not possible to know where several thousand computers and telephones went. This means risks of irregularities and risks that sensitive information goes astray,” Tommi Teljosuo, project manager for the review, said in a press release.
The review also shows that the reduction led to extensive efficiency problems which, among other things, led to asylum seekers and people applying for residence permits being forced to wait for unnecessarily long times.
Swedish vocabulary: downsizing – neddragning
Police officer injured at anti-vaccine demonstration
A group of five people, men and women in their 50s and 70s, demonstrated against the Covid-19 vaccine near a vaccination clinic in Västerås on Thursday. A police officer received a hand injury requiring medical attention while dealing with the incident, which led to one woman in her 70s taken into custody by the police.
“This woman is suspected of violent resistance now, and a report has been made of unlawful intrusion and harassment,” said a police press spokesperson.
Sweden’s Nobel banquet cancelled over Covid
The Nobel Prize banquet has been cancelled for the second consecutive year, making it the fifth year in peacetime that it has not been held since it was first established in 1901. The event is usually attended by more than 1,000 guests and watched by hundreds of thousands of TV viewers.
Instead, prize winners will receive their medals in their home countries. Nobel Week will consist of a mixture of digital and physical events, including lectures and light installations around Stockholm.
Swedish vocabulary: prize winner – pristagare
Annie Lööf re-elected as Centre Party leader
The Centre Party assembly has re-elected Annie Lööf to lead the party for the next two years.
Along with the Sweden Democrat leader Jimmie Åkesson, she is Sweden’s longest serving party leader, having been elected for the first time in 2011. She has been a member of the Swedish parliament since 2006.
Swedish vocabulary: party leader – partiledare
Sweden exempts vaccinated travellers from seven countries from non-EU entry ban
Sweden on Thursday updated its non-EU entry ban to allow fully vaccinated people to enter Sweden from seven new countries.
The rule change means that people who can present a Covid-19 vaccination certificate issued in Albania, Andorra, the Faroe Islands, Israel, Morocco, Monaco or Panama will be exempt from both the ban on entry from most non-EU/EEA countries, and from the requirement to show a negative Covid-19 test on arrival in Sweden. This change will come into effect starting on September 27th.
Swedish vocabulary: to exempt – undanta
More people in Sweden could soon be eligible for Covid vaccine booster
At the weekly Covid-19 briefing from Swedish authorities on Thursday, the Public Health Agency said it was looking into adding more groups to the eligibility list for a vaccine booster shot. Third doses have already started being rolled out, currently to people with severely weakened immune systems, a group of around 40,000.
Swedish vocabulary: immune system – immunsystem
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