Salwa Jwad (53) admits that she received Swedish benefits while also receiving disability pension in Denmark, and now claims that she did not know it was illegal. She and her ex-husband also obtained Swedish citizenship after providing false information. Now five Danish parties are demanding that the government intervene.
– It is madness. We are making fools of ourselves with our own money, says Morten Dahlin, Venstre’s immigration policy spokesman, to Danish TV 2.
Together with Sydsvenskan, the channel has investigated how the Iraqis Kais Kassem (52) and Salwa Jwad obtained residence, citizenship and access to public benefits in Sweden while living in Denmark.
The revelations form part of the documentary ‘Du må ikke blive for dansk’.
Venstre, Det Konservative Folkeparti, Liberal Alliance, Dansk Folkeparti and Danmarksdemokraterne are demanding that the government investigate the case and whether others have exploited the systems in the same way.
Applied for asylum under a false name
Kassem and Jwad came to Denmark from Iraq in the late 1990s. Both have permanent residence permits, and according to TV 2 they have had an address in Denmark since they arrived in the country.
Kais Kassem and Salwa Jwad came from Iraq in the 1990s, and an investigation has uncovered their fraud over a period of at least 16 years. Photo: Private
Nevertheless, Jwad travelled to Sweden in 2010 and applied for asylum under a false name. She claimed that she had come directly from Iraq and that her father-in-law would kill her if she returned.
The Swedish authorities granted the application. Kassem then obtained residence through family reunification. Several years later, both obtained Swedish citizenship.
They also registered with the Swedish Public Employment Service and thereby gained access to public benefits.
TV 2 emphasises that the channel has no documentation showing that Sweden actually paid them money. Jwad herself, however, confirms that she received Swedish money while also receiving Danish disability pension.
– That is correct. The Danes treated me unfairly, and then Kais said: ‘Go over to Sweden,’ she says.
Points to prison sentence for abuse
Jwad explains her feeling of having been treated unfairly by referring to the fact that in 2006 she received an unconditional prison sentence for violence and abuse against her stepdaughter.
After the conviction, she felt that she was being monitored by the Danish authorities. She says that her mental state was ‘completely shattered’.
Kassem also has several convictions for violence. According to TV 2, he was convicted of violence against his daughter in 2006 and received another conviction for violence against his son in 2025.
When TV 2 asks Jwad whether she knew that what she was doing in Sweden was illegal, she replies that her ex-husband had assured her that it would be fine.
– He said that no one would discover it and that I could be completely at ease, she says.
She claims that she did not understand that she was breaking the law.
– I swear, I did not know. I knew nothing about it.
After Jwad was exposed, she blamed her husband, Kais Kassem. Photo: Private
Son’s account put journalists on the trail
TV 2 began investigating the couple’s Swedish connections after receiving information from one of Kassem’s sons.
The son says in the documentary that his father sent him to Sweden to apply for asylum as early as 2009. According to the son, his father instructed him to use a false surname and say that he had come directly from Iraq, even though he lived in Denmark.
The journalists subsequently obtained hundreds of documents from the Swedish authorities. They also visited several Swedish addresses that the couple had provided. Neighbours said that the two had never lived there.
According to TV 2, the documentation shows that the couple provided false information and forged documents.
Demand that their residence permits and pension be taken away
Professor of Law and asylum expert Jens Vedsted-Hansen believes the case exposes a lack of information sharing between the countries.
He tells TV 2 that the method was possible only because the authorities in one country were unaware of the couple’s circumstances in the other.
Dahlin demands consequences:
– The government must find out how we can take the residence permits and disability pension away from these two people, who have cheated and defrauded.
Dansk Folkeparti has also pursued the case in the Folketing. On 4 September, Nick Zimmermann asked the Employment Minister whether the authorities had reopened Jwad’s pension case and whether there were grounds for a repayment claim or a police report. The question remains unanswered for the time being.
Minister: – It makes me furious
Minister for Immigration and Integration Morten Bødskov (S) reacts strongly and says that he will raise the case with his Swedish ministerial counterpart.
– Quite frankly, it makes me furious to hear how the married couple have coldly and cynically defrauded our community and lied their way into residence in Sweden in order to obtain benefits to which they are not entitled, he writes to TV 2.
Danish police will not tell the channel whether the couple have been reported to the police. The Danish Immigration Service (Udlændingestyrelsen) will likewise not comment on the individual case, but states that new information may lead to an assessment of whether a residence permit should be withdrawn.
Jwad and Kassem are no longer married. Both still live in Denmark and have retained their Swedish citizenship, according to TV 2.
They have told the Swedish authorities that they have moved to Iraq.
Kassem has been presented with the documentation, but has declined to be interviewed or answer TV 2’s questions.
