Updated 01.19 | Published 01.15
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A man from Ukraine was refused a driving lesson at a driving school in Sweden, because he did not agree to the driving school teacher’s demand to speak Russian during the lesson, according to the Discrimination Ombudsman (DO).
The man explained that he wanted to complete the lesson in Swedish or English, but was denied by the teacher who told DO that the man’s Swedish was too bad. DO writes in a press release that the authority has not seen anything to support that claim.
“By demanding that the lesson be conducted in Russian, the man has been treated worse than other driving school students,” says Sandra Danowsky, lawyer at DO’s process unit, in the press release.
“The fact that the demand was made is related to the man’s ethnic affiliation and thus it has been a matter of discrimination,” continues Danowsky.
DO wants the driving school to pay SEK 40,000 in discrimination compensation to the man.