Sweden: Migrant woman deported for having second job

A female migrant who has resided and worked in Uppsala for 13 years is to be deported because authorities discovered that she had two jobs after she submitted her residency permit application, when regulations stipulate that just one is allowed.

The woman was set to be deported on Tuesday after the Migration Court of Appeals’ ruling. The board’s system states that applicants must have one job for at least six months before they can apply for work and residency permits. However, six months before she made the application, she had two jobs and didn’t meet the criteria.

The woman’s lawyer Bo Johan Wigfeldt claimed that the fact she was working and is still to be evicted is against the whole purpose of the law. She said that they could have interpreted her situation differently.

The woman, who has not been named, has lived in the Scandinavian country for 13 years and had applied for legal asylum on two previous occasions, but was rejected both times.

Her niece told local reporters that her aunt was returning to a “death sentence” in her homeland as it believed she comes from a country where a hardline dictatorship is in place. She added that her aunt was scared and crying.

Migration Court judge Arvid Hessen would not comment on whether the current one-job law needed to be changed. He said that it was not his court’s responsibility to say what is reasonable, adding that they follow whatever law is in place. The woman has not been granted the right to appeal.