Parliament to vote on a law that violates private person's integrity

In two days time, the Swedish parliament is set to vote on the passing of a new law designed to give free reign to the state information system, to listen to and intercept all forms of communication via the Internet and telephone. The motivation behind this draconian measure that will trespass on the citizen's right to integrity is a presumed threat of external terrorism.

Dagens Nyheter's columnist Niklas Ekdal writes: " One does not need to have paranoia or sharp imagination to see how the state information can be abused. Sources, confidential letters and other matters of course disappear simply by pressing 'Delete'."

Listening devices have played an important role in the last two World Wars as well as during the Cold War. The art of intercepting enemy communication, at sea or land and reacting in time to subvert an attack was due to inventions in the field of information. But times have changed with the discovery of highly sophisticated information technology. World politics is changed and may require an even more advanced system of security surveillance. But not at the expense of the people's right to privacy and integrity.

Enacting a law that allows the state to intrude into the private realm of the citizen's life sends a jolting reality in a democratic society where person's integrity is sanctified in law. That this is happening in Sweden is unimaginable and speaks of ignorance on the part of parliamentarians with bad security advisers. This is heading for totalitarianism through information control, which is what happens in China and other dictatorships around the world. What a terrible setback in a democratic society!

Forced marriages and marriages for sale

The Swedish Migration Board is once again on the limelight for failing to do a proper investigation into an arranged marriage that took place in Iran whereby the supposed bride was brought to Sweden, wherein said marriage did not last the legally-mandated two-year period to allow a permanent residence permit. The Iranian woman is now due for deportation back to Iran where she allegedly faces death threat from her own family.

The Migration Board has become more generous in its assumption that Swedes and holders of permanent residence permits who marries abroad, or finds a partner abroad and returns to Sweden "stays married" because they found love. Indeed it is naive to pursue such an assumption as basis for a migration policy. It smacks of ignorance of the thriving marriage business, whereby a Swedish national or holder of a residence permit can enter into a marriage contract for the cost of no less than 100,000 Swedish crowns. Poor parents in some remote villages in Asia, Africa and even Latin-America could easily welcome the idea of marrying off their daughters, or sons in exchange for hard currency.

The waiting time of two years to prove serious marital intent may protect the women from immediate deportation but it does not control the flourishing marriage business nor put a hinder to parentally-arranged marriages. Nothing is more detrimental to women than to be forced into a loveless marriage, a marriage where violence and domestic abuses happen.

According to Dagens Nyheter ( June 10, 2008) there were around 16,000 persons last year who were granted temporary permanent residences and a large number were women from Thailand. It is pre-supposed that even in these cases, some were made out of a business arrangement. It is a known fact that in Thailand's remote villages, poor parents sell their daughters if not to marriages, then to brothels and sex procurers.

It is lamentable that the Migration Board should adopt an indifferent attitude towards the real possibility of human trafficking disguised as marriages, or that it should presume that nationals bringing potential brides to Sweden are motivated by the noblest emotion called love.