A new Swedish law on the duty to provide information requires six government agencies to notify the police of individuals suspected of residing illegally in Sweden.
The law has been dubbed the ‘informant law’ by its critics.
The legislation applies to the Swedish Public Employment Service (Arbetsförmedlingen), the Swedish Social Insurance Agency (Försäkringskassan), the Swedish Prison and Probation Service (Kriminalvården), the Swedish Enforcement Authority (Kronofogden), the Swedish Pensions Agency (Pensionsmyndigheten), and the Swedish Tax Agency (Skatteverket), writes Aftonbladet.
The government argues that the law will help combat the shadow side of society and strengthen Sweden’s security.
Migration Minister Johan Forssell is unequivocal about what the law is intended to achieve.
‘If someone receives a decision that they must leave the country, then they must comply with it,’ he told the newspaper.
He stresses that the issue concerns Sweden’s security and that there are individuals who seek to harm the country.
‘We need to know who is in the country,’ he says.
The law has met with strong opposition from trade unions and the opposition parties. The Left Party (Vänsterpartiet), the Green Party (Miljöpartiet), the Social Democratic Party (Socialdemokraterna), and the Centre Party (Centerpartiet) voted against the proposal. Tony Haddou, the Left Party’s spokesperson on migration policy, believes the law has no place in Sweden.
‘We should not have informant laws in Sweden. Employees of our public authorities are not an extension of the border police,’ says Haddou.
The Swedish Association of University Graduates (Akademikerförbundet SSR) is also critical. Its president, Heike Erkers, believes the law could create even more undocumented migrants by causing people to avoid contact with public authorities. She nevertheless emphasises that the union is not encouraging anyone to break the law.
Forssell rejects the suggestion that the law requires individual public officials to decide who should be allowed to remain in the country, and says that any breach of the law is a matter between the official and the employer.
Norway, for its part, has no equivalent legislation. There is no ‘informant law’ or statutory duty to provide information requiring Norwegian authorities such as NAV, the Norwegian Tax Administration (Skatteetaten), or the welfare system to report individuals who are residing in the country unlawfully.
What does exist in Norway are adaptations to the Schengen cooperation (the SIS Regulation), which require Norwegian authorities to register foreign nationals who are to be expelled from the Schengen area, as well as a new integration declaration introduced in March 2026.
Neither of these is comparable to the Swedish duty to provide information.
Nor have there been any concrete legislative proposals to introduce a similar scheme in Norway. The Progress Party (FrP) has, however, repeatedly proposed stricter enforcement of the Immigration Act (utlendingsloven), but without putting forward a specific statutory duty to provide information of this kind.