Would help asylum seekers find jobs - stopped after SVT's revelation

The idea came from the government.

In 2015, the then Minister of Labor Ylva Johansson (SocDem) commissioned the Swedish Public Employment Service to create a web tool that would help asylum seekers get closer jobs.

The authority took on the task with enthusiasm. According to internal documents, it was thought that hundreds of millions could be saved for society by bringing asylum seekers to work.

In 2018, Jobskills was in place. 100 people had been hired to motivate the target group to sign up. 30,000 new arrivals had done so, of which 14,000 were asylum seekers. Now the service was also opened for employers.

But SVT's review showed that legal issues had been left unanswered during the development. Internal warnings had been ignored and Jobskills could be used for refugee espionage.

The revelation led to the authority's legal director immediately closing Jobskills in order to ensure that the use complied with the law.

When the service reopened, it was with a number of restrictions. Asylum seekers are today met by a warning text in which they are advised against registering "if there is a risk that you or close relatives will be persecuted or subjected to reprisals in Sweden or the home country".

The employment service also limited its own access, so employment services were no longer allowed to apply for the position.

All extraction of statistics was also stopped, so from January 2019 no one knows how many people use Jobskills.

At that point, however, there may be a change now.

After another investigation - also started as a result of SVT's review - the legal department has come to the conclusion that figures can still be taken out of use.

“We plan to take statistics from Jobskills starting in the autumn. However, the scope and measuring points are not clear at the moment, ”writes Daniel Warelius, head of the Digital Services department at the Swedish Public Employment Service.

The Moderates and Liberals have previously demanded that Jobskills be closed down. Now a third party joins the demand.

“SD is always critical of labor market policy initiatives that treat discrimination based on ethnicity. Jobskills are no exception to this type of failure, ”writes Alexander Christiansson (SD), member of the labor market committee.