A roundup of the latest news on Thursday

Swedish PM ‘not ruling out’ state apology to international adoptees

Swedish Prime Minister Ulf Kristersson told the TT news agency that he’s not ruling out an official state apology to international adoptees, after a government-appointed inquiry sharply criticised previous state inaction on adoptions under questionable circumstances.

The investigation, led by civil law professor Anna Singer, found evidence of child trafficking in about ten cases, mostly from the 1970s and 80s. In many more cases, parental consent was missing or poorly documented. It proposed banning all international adoptions.

It was launched in 2021 after reports surfaced of children stolen from countries such as Chile, China, and South Korea. 

Kristersson himself has been caught up at the centre of scandal, as he served as chair of Adoptionscentrum, the organisation arranging international adoptions to Sweden, between 2003 and 2005. 

“The information there is now didn’t exist at the time, it has emerged afterwards,” he told TT.

He said that he welcomed the inquiry commission’s report.

“It’s incredibly important that this work has been done. There’s a great number of proposals form the commission which we are now going to study very carefully,” he said. “The government isn’t ruling anything out.”

Swedish vocabulary: an apology – en ursäkt

Swedes breathe sigh of relief after Systembolaget strike called off

Swedes’ access to their much-loved aquavit at Midsummer is secured after trade unions struck a deal with business organisation Svensk Handel just under a week before hundreds of employees at state-run alcohol monopoly Systembolaget had been set to walk out.

Unionen and Engineers of Sweden had threatened industrial action which would have affected Systembolaget’s headquarters as well as warehouses in Stockholm, Kungsängen, Sundsvall and Örebro. As the warehouses supply alcohol to the chain’s stores, there was a risk of shelves running dry and some shops having to close as a result.

The sticking point was union demands for part-time employees to be given the same rights to overtime compensation as full-time employees when they work more than their contracted hours. But after signing a new collective bargaining agreement, the strike was called off.

Swedish vocabulary: to call off – att avblåsa

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Swish back up and running after tech incident

Swedish digital payments app Swish was down for two hours after roughly 9pm last night.

But by 11pm the company said the problem had been resolved.

All or almost all transactions were affected by the incident, according to Swish.

Swish is a phone-to-bank payment service which boasts millions of users – by far Sweden’s most popular payment platform.

But it has suffered repeated tech glitches in recent months. According to public broadcaster SVT, more than 180 incidents that affected customers have been recorded in the past year.

Swedish vocabulary: to make a payment to someone via the Swish app – att swisha

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Sweden could send up to 600 convicted criminals to Estonia

A new agreement between Sweden and Estonia means that up to 600 criminals convicted in Sweden could serve time in prisons in Estonia.

The deal, which is designed to partly solve Sweden’s problem with a lack of prison space, is the result of negotiations which began this spring.

The two countries have agreed that Sweden can rent 400 cells in a prison in Tartu – the entire prison – in the southeastern part of the country, which would house up to 600 convicted criminals.

Prisoners eligible to be placed in Estonia would be men over the age of 18 who are convicted for crimes in Sweden. Both Swedish and foreign criminals would be eligible, with the exception of Estonian citizens.

Under the deal Sweden would only be able to send prisoners who do not pose a major security risk, roughly equivalent to convicted criminals classed at security level two in Sweden, on a three-point scale.

Swedish vocabulary: a prison – ett fängelse