Police urge calm ahead of Quran burning on Friday

Police urged the public in Malmö to remain calm and not allow themselves to be provoked by the expected burning of a Quran on May 3rd, just before the week of Eurovision gets under way in the Swedish city. The protest has been granted permission by police to go ahead.

“We can’t reject [the permit]. Police have been criticised when we have rejected permits in various ways. There have been court decisions and we look at each case very thoroughly. But every situation is unique,” senior police officer Per Engström told the TT newswire.

“This is a call for everyone in the area to let it pass. The purpose is to cause offence and upset, but we’re telling the public to try to keep calm,” he added.

Several other, separate, protests are also expected to go ahead in Malmö in the coming week, including in support and in protest of the European Broadcasting Union’s decision to let Israel participate despite the brutal war with Hamas in Gaza.

Swedish vocabulary: to keep calm – att hålla sig lugn

Israel warns citizens of travelling to Malmö

Israel has raised its travel advisory for people going to Malmö during Eurovision Week from 2 to 3, or in other words defining it as a “moderate” threat. In a new update published by the National Security Council, it urges Israelis to reconsider travelling to Malmö.

The National Security Council writes that the decision to raise the threat level comes against the backdrop of anti-Israel protests in Malmö, the high-profile nature of Eurovision Song Contest as an event, as well as a global increase in calls for Islamist extremists to carry out attacks on Western objects “including targeted threats against Israelis and Jews around the world”.

“These developments raise credible concerns that terrorist factions will take advantage of the demonstrations and the anti-Israel atmosphere to execute attacks on Israelis coming to Sweden for the Eurovision. Swedish authorities have bolstered security measures in Malmö, but it is important to note that unlike the Israeli delegation to the contest, individual Israelis are not protected,” it writes.

The heightened travel alert specifically applies to the week of Eurovision and the rest of Sweden remains at a level 2.

Swedish vocabulary: a threat – ett hot

Deported cleaner wins court case against former employer

A 28-year-old woman from Nicaragua, who was arrested outside former Prime Minister Magdalena Andersson’s home in 2021 and deported after it was discovered that she didn’t have any proper residence permits, has won a court case against her former employer in Sweden.

Chilo Martinez had, with the help of the SAC Syndikalisterna trade union, sued the cleaning company for failing to pay her wages. 

On Thursday, the district court ruled that Martinez is entitled to 81,900 kronor in missing wages, as well as damages of 45,000 kronor.

Undocumented migrants working in Sweden without proper permits still have the right to get paid for their work, said SAC, but also said that this was the first time a cleaner working out of the black labour market took her employer to court with union backing.

“I did it because they didn’t act decently towards me when this happened, knowing I was undocumented, and so that from this point onwards it will be known that undocumented people have rights in Sweden,” Martinez told the Expressen tabloid, which was first to report the news.

Swedish vocabulary: a cleaner – en städerska

Is the Migration Agency meeting its 30-day target for high-skilled foreigners?

More than 7,750 work permit applications have been submitted to Sweden’s Migration Agency since a new system designed to speed up waiting times for highly qualified workers was implemented.

The new system, rolled out on January 29th, divides workers into four different categories depending on their profession. It was introduced after complaints about long waits for both first-time and renewed work permits and promised to process the top category, “A”, within 30 days.

A Migration Agency spokesperson told The Local that a total of 95 percent of complete work permit applications sent in by highly qualified workers since January 29th were processed within 30 days, with a median handling time of 14 days, according to figures from April 15th.

You can read more statistics in The Local’s full article.

Swedish vocabulary: highly qualified – högkvalificerad