How non EU immigrants are duped off hundred of thousands for a Swedish job that was never there.

Wednesday, 11 April 2012
Fake job offers is the new form of human trafficking according to the Swedish authorities. People who come to Sweden from here from outside the EU have often paid large sums to come to Sweden to work, but when they come here there are shocked to find that things are not as promised.

According to Swedish television’s investigative news program, Rapport, people are promised employment to Sweden and when they arrive here they find that things are not as they were told.

People from non EU countries have only positive news about Sweden. These people believe that Sweden is a country of integrity where people don’t tell lies and where everything in properly structured.

As such they believe what the fake job givers promise them. The job seeker’s quest for a better live make them to part with as much as Skr110,000 (€12,300 or 16.3000 US Dollars). Several people have fallen into this trap and many have gone bankrupt back in their home countries where they borrowed additional money to meet their dreams.

One case from Egypt, came to Sweden, Södertälje near Stockholm since half a year ago and made contact with the employers who had signed the job offer, he realized that he had been deceived. Something did not work out well and the money was gone. He is now looking desperately for another job.

One problem here is that these duped victims cannot report to the police and cannot tell the Immigration Service that they have not received the promised job. The effect would be that the Migration Board would surely repatriate them if they do not find another job within the three – months their work visa is initially issues. The work permit will be withdrawn and their entitlement to be in Sweden will become obsolete.

The problem has been determined to be common with many people. According Ghayis Abdelmesih, a deacon at the Syrian Orthodox Church in Sodertalje, it is very common for nationals of other countries outside the EU to have to pay large sums of money, Skr 100,000, sometimes Skr200,000, to get a job offers that are necessary for the Immigration Service to grant work permits in Sweden.

Most common is that the jobs would not exist when they come to Sweden, or that such wages are much lower than what was promised.

“I can not say exactly how many they are but there are several hundred just in Sodertalje alone,” says Ghayis Abdelmesih to Swedish television.

And the picture that there are many people who have paid money to come to Sweden to work is shared by Ulla Ahlbäck, police inspector at the Swedish Criminal bureau and expert on human trafficking.
“Smugglers who previously transported people hidden in vehicles have now shifted to dealing with conditions of various kinds, it is their new way to make money,” says Ulla Ahlbäck.
Adding that such operation is very common, but he could not put an exact figure though he counted them to be in their thousands in total.
By Scancomark.se Team

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