Facts: Obligation to report
The government is now giving an already ongoing investigation the task of reviewing whether municipalities and authorities should be obliged to inform the Swedish Migration Agency and the police when they come into contact with people who are staying in Sweden without a permit.
The investigator must also review what consequences it may have if you do not comply with the duty to report, or the duty to provide information. Exceptions to it may become relevant, for example in healthcare.
An interim report is to be presented in January and the final report in September next year.
— We stand firmly where we have been all along, we do not think it is a good proposal. It’s about what kind of society you want – do you want a reporting society? No, DIK’s members don’t want to see that, says union president Anna Troberg.
The Tidö parties are now moving forward with the proposal on compulsory notification. But nine out of ten librarians among DIK’s members are strongly critical, according to Anna Troberg, and in free-text responses to a survey many write that they would rather quit if the proposal goes through.
— You have not chosen to become a librarian or work in a museum to indicate people. It’s a completely different business, she says.
Potential racial profiling
The Library Act states that museums must be open to everyone, without exception, underlines Anna Troberg. She also wonders how the notifications would actually go about.
— You have to report someone who doesn’t have papers, but how do you know what such a person looks like? What does the government want people to look for? Should you look for someone that doesn’t look like it comes from Sweden from five generations ago? It becomes potential racial profiling.
She also emphasizes that staff at museums have been severely affected by threats and hatred in their work environment, and claims that this would add a new potential conflict surface. DIK will work for the government to scrap the entire proposal.
— If exceptions are made for occupational group after occupational group, it is perhaps because the basic proposal is very bad.
“Make the place unsafe”
Anna Troberg argues that libraries are one of the last open democratic places in society.
— It is important to protect them. And if, through a proposal like this, you make the place unsafe for some, those you make it unsafe for will choose not to go there. And that group is much larger than the group you are trying to reach.