'Inconceivable' Scandal as Illegal Immigrant Hired to Clean Swedish Prime Minister's Villa

A Nicaraguan woman in her 20s, who has a conviction and was slated for deportation, was allowed to clean the prime minister's private villa, as the Security Police Säpo failed to run the necessary background checks.

Swedish Prime Minister Magdalena Andersson has landed in hot water as an illegal immigrant has been hired to clean her villa. This raised questions about the protection level of top-ranking officials in the Nordic country.

In the days before Christmas, the police were alerted to the prime minister's home in Nacka, where a burglar alarm had been triggered by mistake by a cleaning lady, according to the newspaper Expressen. On the spot, the police found and arrested the wanted woman, who happened to be an illegal immigrant without a residence permit.

According to Expressen, the twenty-something woman comes from Nicaragua. The Swedish Migration Agency had earmarked her for deportation in the spring of 2020, but she has remained in the country illegally, and has been wanted since autumn.

Furthermore, the woman was convicted of theft at Åhléns City in Stockholm in autumn, 2020. As she had no previous conviction at that time, she received a suspended sentence.

The security police Säpo run background checks on those who work for representatives of the central government. However, when work for a protected person is performed privately, the person's background is not checked, a Säpo spokesman told Expressen.

Security expert Dick Malmlund, a former police officer, and a longtime head of security at Swedish Trade, is very critical of the scandal.

“It is inconceivable”, Malmlund told national broadcaster SVT about the incident. According to him, Säpo should be responsible for the prime minister's security around the clock.

"If it is not Säpo's assignment, it is a scandal, and if it is, it is still a scandal,” Malmlund said. “You can not say that we let anyone into the prime minister's home, but once she is outside her home, the control is rock solid. Her entire life is important,” Malmlund added.

Subsequently, Säpo chief Charlotte von Essen said it will check whether a need for a change in the rules has arisen.

“I can understand that as it has been reported about the incident, and it raises questions. For the Security Police, it is not possible to go into details when it comes to the security of our protected individuals, but of course the Prime Minister's security is of the highest priority,” von Essen told national broadcaster SVT.

Andersson herself assured that she has done “the obvious things as a customer” and that she has always paid her employees their official salary. “Then again you can always think about whether you could have done more,” Andersson told the newspaper Göteborgs-Posten.