Sweden: Asylum seekers may drive without a license
Sweden: Asylum seekers may drive without a license
Right now the police in Blekinge is investigating a number of cases where drivers have been stopped without a license and claimed that they have a foreign license, but that it's lost.
In mid-September last year, the police stopped a driver in Karlskrona. The man had no driver's license to show, but explained that he had a foreign license. The only problem was that it was lost, reports Swedish Radio.
Shortly thereafter the man was charged with illegal driving, but the court acquitted him because the prosecutor could not prove that the man didn't have a driving license.
Investigator Helena Renberg currently has around 30 similar cases on her desk.
- When it is not possible to obtain any records from the country where they claim they got the license, it is very difficult, she says.
As long as one is not registered as a Swedish citizen, one does not need to have a Swedish driving license. And from that day one has been registered as a Swedish citizen, the law says that one has a year to arrange to get a Swedish driver license.
For example, it means that during the asylum process, which usually will take a year and a half, and the year the law allows for to drive without a Swedish licence, in practice means that asylum seekers can drive a car without a driving license for two and a half years.
- But there is still a risk, because even if there are no driver's license records to go through, there is another way, says Joel Holmgren, assistant prosecutor in Karlskrona.
- One can simply make a judgment of the story of the suspect, if what he says is credible or not, says Holmgren.
But, isn't that exactly what the prosecutor just tried and the court rejected? That the prosecutor had to provide evidence that the man was lying. Oh, poor Sweden...
The police with friendly request
Now that it is confirmed that the Swedish law obviously is totally unprepared for thousands of asylum seekers behind the wheel, and instead works against logic and common sense, the police are merely left with a prayer to foreign men.
Stefan Palm, who is a traffic officer in Blekinge, does not think this is entirely successful, and wonder if one should do otherwise, but until then he has a friendly request.
- If you can not prove that you have a driver's license, maybe you should drive less?
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