Mikael Ribbenvik speaks out about his resignation from the Swedish Migration Agency

In May 2023, Mikael Ribbenvik left his position as Director General of the Swedish Migration Agency. He wanted to stay on but the government still chose to terminate the service when it expired – a decision that was debated. Now he gives his view of the incident.

– SD’s leader said that four directors-general would go and so it happened, says Mikael Ribbenvik.

Mikael Ribbenvik was appointed as the new director general in 2017 and has openly said that he wanted to remain in the post. In Nyhetsmorgon, he is asked how he felt about his departure.

– You have a contract for x number of years and not everyone can get a job. It’s nothing to cry about, says the former general manager.

The 2015 wave of refugees: “We were in the dock”

It was a tiring few years that Mikael Ribbenvik was director general, especially tough was 2015 when 162,000 people sought asylum in Sweden.

– We didn’t have room to receive them based on the Migration Agency’s capacity, we were in the dock, says the former director general.

In the end, the politicians made the decision to close the borders. Mikael Ribbenvik describes it as a shift in politics. He also tells how much responsibility the Swedish Migration Agency had to take, this despite the fact that the decision was political.

– You want someone else to say that it was time to stop,

“SD wanted me away”

In connection with his resignation, Ribbenvik was called to the social insurance committee to answer questions connected to an examination in the newspaper Fokus. The review highlighted problems that existed at the time at the Swedish Migration Agency, including in connection with new recruitments and decisions.

After the decision that Ribbenvik does not get an extended appointment, SD member Björn Söder tweeted: “time to clean up Myndighetssverige. Away with asylum activists from Verket”. And in Ribbenvik’s newly written book “Migration: Genom mina ögon”, the former director general believes that the Sweden Democrats are behind his resignation.

– SD wanted me away. Their leaders said they wanted four general managers removed and the four were allowed to go. It may be a coincidence, but it is a conclusion I have drawn, he says in Nyhetsmorgon.