All larger private assistance companies in Sweden have employees linked to organized crime, according to a fresh report.
Gang criminals and their families have infiltrated businesses as representatives and personal assistants.
This is incredibly serious. I'm unfortunately not entirely surprised by these results. But that it's fully as bad as this, I don't think anyone knew, that all the large companies were practically hijacked by criminality, says Ulf Kristersson.
The Police are Examining the Companies
The system of personal assistance is an incredibly important reform that helps many people in their daily lives, but something has gone wrong, according to Kristersson.
This must be stopped. Now we have a long-term investigation that we believe in strongly. We will go very far to ensure that criminals do not get their hands on the assistance funds.
The investigation was set up on Tuesday and is expected to be completed by January 2027.
National Police Commissioner Petra Lundh believes that the widespread assistance abuse is "completely appalling", although it doesn't come as a surprise to her either.
83 companies are pointed out for having a particularly close connection to gang criminals.
We are naturally looking into this and what we can do. If it's the case that it's criminal, it's clear that we will initiate an investigation. We will go through this further, says Petra Lundh.
Don't Want to Worsen
Assistance has been problem-ridden for a long time. That no one has really taken hold of the issue may, according to the Prime Minister, have to do with the fact that assistance helps people with great needs, and no one wants to worsen the help they receive.
But we can't, at the same time, in our eagerness to help people, turn a blind eye when organized crime hijacks both users and the assistance companies that are supposed to help.
