The Swedish dentist who said too much

in #sweden7 years ago

In Sweden we recently learned about a dentist on Gotland, an island on the south-eastern side of Sweden, who had to work with people claiming to be minors (under 18) but then they opened their mouthes. Literally.

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What he saw was not the teeth of adolescents. It was the teeth of men. Some older, some younger, but men all the same.

The dentist was of course excited about these news and decided to talk to a manager for the Swedish Migration Agency and asked what they could do about this revelation. She told them that, of course, these things should be reported to the Swedish Migration Agency so they'd be able to make adjustments to their age.

So, that's what they started doing. Reporting each migrant who obviously was older than he claimed. About 80% of the migrants, the dentist surmised, was obviously adult.

That's where the fun ended, though.

The person at the Swedish Migration Agency who received the e-mails from the dentist, however, didn't take the promised actions but instead forwarded the e-mails to the migrant adult's (I'm not going to lower myself to calling them childrens) sponsor. The sponsor in turn, contacted the dentist's employer and set the stage for the next part.

The dentist's boss and his/hers boss told the dentist that he was under investigation and was not welcome back to work until the investigation was done.

Two weeks later he was terminated from the position he'd held for 10 years. He was painted as an extremist by the media. Even the state-run media SVT didn't pull back but ran a story about the dentist and his "extremist" actions.

This was not nearly the end for our dentist, though.

He was to be made an example of, is the feeling you get when reading his story. To make sure no one will follow his tracks and stray of the allowed opinions.

Our dentist suddenly found himself without a job and with a wife who, due to the stress of the events, had to stop working herself.

He did not see himself as completely beaten, though, but decided to take up the fight over his job and try to get it back. When he met the Swedish state in court in the first instance where he was given an indemnity of 35.000 SKR, but didn't get his job back. He didn't think it was too bad, getting something for all the trouble.

He did not consider his opponent, though. The Swedish State. Ruthlessly, savagely and uncaring the Swedish state took up the hunt on our dentist and hired the top lawyer in his category of the country.

With the dentist's own money, of course. And ours. Not their own money, mind you.

This will mean that if our dentist loose the trial he will have to pay the court costs of both parties. Never mind that the Swedish state hires the most expensive one they can get their hands on.

It will completely crush our dentist's ability to continue living his life in a normal fashion. He will be bereft his house and possessions to be able to pay the court costs while the adult migrants continue to live of off his hard work and labour.

Relevant links:

Original text
English translation of original text
SVT (Swedish State Media's take)(Swedish)
Generosity fundraising page to help our dentist economically