Arabs Lived in Denmark – Tricked Their Way into the Swedish Asylum and Welfare System for 16 Years

An Iraqi couple with permanent residence and domicile in Denmark simultaneously managed to establish an entirely different identity and life before Swedish authorities. With false information, forged documents, and addresses at which, according to neighbors, they never actually lived, Kais Kassem and Salwa Jwad secured residence permits and eventually Swedish citizenship—which, despite the fraud, cannot be revoked. Jwad also admits that she received Swedish benefits while being supported by the public sector in Denmark. The fraud began when their 13-year-old son was driven to Sweden and instructed to claim he was an unaccompanied refugee from Iraq.

For nearly two decades, Kais Kassem, 52, and Salwa Jwad, 53, lived with permanent residency in Denmark. At the same time, they managed to present themselves to Swedish authorities as Iraqi refugees needing protection in Sweden.

The result was Swedish residence permits, access to the welfare system, and ultimately Swedish citizenship—without Swedish authorities ever discovering that the couple’s real life remained on the other side of the Øresund.

The story has been mapped out jointly by Danish TV2 and Sydsvenskan through hundreds of official documents and interviews in Sweden, Denmark, and Iraq. The investigation also reveals that the parents’ manipulation of the Swedish asylum system began with one of their children.

13-Year-Old Son Ordered to Act as Unaccompanied Minor

In December 2009, Kais Kassem drove his then 13-year-old son to the Migration Board in Märsta. The boy, whom Sydsvenskan calls Adnan, had arrived in Denmark at the age of about six, attended Danish school, and lived there with his family. But before Swedish authorities, he was to tell an entirely different story.

According to the son, his father instructed him to use a false surname, claim he had come directly from Iraq, and say that a human smuggler had brought him to Sweden over the course of a seven-day journey. After that, the father left him.

The Migration Board registered the boy as an unaccompanied refugee. He himself stated that he spoke only Arabic and told stories of abuse and harsh conditions in Iraq. Parts of his account of violence had a basis in reality—but not the one Swedish authorities were told.

The boy now says he was subjected to extensive abuse by his family in Denmark. The father allegedly beat him with fists and belts, knocked his head against the wall, and jabbed him with needles. Kais Kassem was later convicted in Denmark for abuse of his son, but according to Sydsvenskan, he denies the accusations.

At a transit accommodation in Rimbo outside Norrtälje, the boy experienced, for the first time in a long while, a life without familial violence.

– I had a good time in Sweden because I wasn’t beaten. I got food, he later told his sister Alvira Lund.

Eva Torgerstad, who was the manager back then, remembers him as a lively and mischievous 13-year-old who quickly settled in. In retrospect, she described it as if he seemed “released”.

According to the son, the father did get in touch, but mainly to ask if he had been granted a residence permit. On one occasion, Kassem reportedly picked him up to an apartment and beat him severely with a paper towel holder before driving him back to the accommodation.

Fake ID Revealed

However, the Migration Board began to notice issues with the boy’s story. The identity card the father provided turned out to be made with an inkjet printer and even included a misspelling in the city crest. In July 2010, it was decided that the boy would be deported to Iraq. By then, he could no longer be found.

According to later information, Kais Kassem appeared in Filipstad, where the son was. The boy described how a man suddenly pounced on him while he was cycling home from a job as a dishwasher. It turned out to be his father. Kassem cried and promised the abuse would never happen again. The son was then taken by car back to Denmark.

It was only later he told the truth about his background to the staff at the Swedish facility. He himself described the purpose of the operation as allowing his father to follow via family reunification if the boy was granted asylum. The attempt failed. But the family’s dealings with the Swedish asylum system were just beginning.

Salwa Jwad Applied for Asylum Under False Identity

On May 20, 2010, Salwa Jwad walked into the Migration Board’s office in Rosengård, Malmö, and applied for asylum. She too gave a false name and claimed to have come straight from Iraq. In reality, she had lived in Denmark for over ten years and had permanent residency there.

To the Migration Board, she said she had fled from her father-in-law, who supposedly beat and threatened her life. Among other things, she claimed he had stomped on her head and threatened to shoot her. The husband and children were claimed to still be in Iraq. The Danish life was not mentioned.

Salwa Jwad lied her way to asylum in Sweden. Image: Private.

The Migration Board initially became suspicious. The Iraqi ID card Jwad submitted was deemed fake and her story not entirely credible. She was denied and reported to the police. But she appealed. That’s when a new document appeared.

It was claimed to come from a sheikh who was the head of her clan in Iraq. According to this certificate, the clan had ostracized Jwad for bringing shame on the family and her relatives planned to kill her. The document helped turn the case around.

The fake certificate from the sheikh. Image: Facsimile.

Many years later, when Sydsvenskan and TV2 found the sheikh’s family in Baghdad and showed the document to the son of the man who was said to have signed it, he dismissed it.

– That is not my father’s signature. This is forged. Did she want asylum because of this document? This document is a lie.

The Husband Followed – Despite the Couple Being Divorced

Jwad eventually was allowed to stay in Sweden. The following year, Kais Kassem applied for a residence permit through family connection to her.

There was also a complication that was not disclosed to Swedish authorities—the couple had been registered as divorced for several years in Denmark. In Sweden, they once again presented themselves as married. Kassem also slightly changed his name and used a Swedish address.

The residence permit was granted. Thus, two people who already had permanent residence in Denmark for over a decade managed to create a parallel legal existence in Sweden. Later, both became Swedish citizens. Kassem obtained his citizenship in 2019.

Neighbors: They’ve Never Lived Here

Journalists have visited several of the addresses where the couple were officially registered in Malmö over the years. The pattern is repeated. For instance, at Kroksbäck, the couple was supposedly renting a room from a woman who claims never to have met them.

– I promise, I don’t know them. I have never met them.

However, she remembers letters began arriving for unknown people at her address. She contacted the Tax Agency and explained that the people did not live there, but the mail kept coming.

Even at Östra Farmvägen, where Kassem was still registered as recently as 2024, neighbors say they’d never seen him. The apartment owner, Mushtak Awad, says he doesn’t know the people who, according to records, were supposedly lodgers there.

There was yet another address in Kirseberg. There, both Kassem and Jwad, as well as Kassem’s wheelchair-bound sister, were supposed to have lived. The real tenant says the same thing:

– I don’t know them. It’s just me and my husband living here.

TV2 states that the couple had their address in Denmark during the entire period.

Admits Receiving Swedish Benefits While Supported in Denmark

The parallel Swedish identity also opened doors to the welfare system. Both Kassem and Jwad registered with the Swedish Public Employment Service and thus became eligible for Swedish benefits. Kassem also ordered a European Health Insurance Card from the Social Insurance Agency.

Kais Kassem posing in an expensive suit and luxury watch. Image: Private.

Due to confidentiality, the media have not been able to determine how much Swedish money was actually paid out to the couple. However, Jwad herself admits she received Swedish benefits. At the same time, she was receiving disability pension in Denmark.

– That’s correct. The Danes treated me unfairly, so Kais said, “Go over to Sweden,” she told TV2.

She told Sydsvenskan that she received Swedish compensation for about a year and a half. She claims at the same time that she didn’t realize her actions were illegal.

– I swear, I didn’t know. I suspected nothing, she told TV2.

According to Jwad, the scheme was Kassem’s idea. He apparently assured her that Swedish authorities would not be able to detect her Danish background.

– He said, “You don’t have fingerprints in Denmark.” He said no one would discover it and that I could be completely calm.

Jwad has also admitted she never actually lived in Sweden. “Not even a day,” she told Sydsvenskan.

Child Abuse Preceded the Move Across the Øresund

Behind the decision to set up a parallel Swedish existence, according to Jwad, were also the couple’s problems with Danish authorities. Both she and Kassem were convicted in 2006 in a case of violence and abuse against a stepdaughter.

Jwad has stated that after the verdict she was afraid of losing her Danish residency. Swedish citizenship could provide additional protection from being forced to leave the EU.

– It was to avoid social services so they couldn’t monitor us. So I went to Sweden, and they gave me asylum. But I didn’t live there. Not a single day did I live there, she told Sydsvenskan.

The family has six children, but the parents never applied for Swedish citizenship for them. Instead, the children continued living on the Danish side. When daughter Alvira Lund found out her father and stepmother had become Swedish citizens, she was strongly affected.

– It’s just about gaming the system all the time. It’s distasteful.

Sister Received Swedish Benefits – Was in Denmark

The investigation also found further links to the Swedish welfare system. Kassem’s sister, who is paralyzed and uses a wheelchair, was registered in Malmö and for many years received benefits from the Social Insurance Agency of at least 8,500 kronor per month.

On one occasion, the Social Insurance Agency’s case officers were to meet her in her home. When they arrived, they were told the woman wasn’t there. She was with her brother—in Denmark.

How Control Systems Were Circumvented

A key question after the revelation is how the scheme could continue for so long. Normally, asylum seekers’ fingerprints are registered in the EU system Eurodac. Thus, authorities should be able to detect if a person has already applied for asylum in another member state.

But Salwa Jwad originally came to Denmark through family reunification. For such immigration, no fingerprints were taken. Furthermore, fingerprints are deleted from the system after ten years. The same applies in some cases when a person becomes a citizen.

Peter Cederholm, who works with personal identification and fingerprints at the Swedish Migration Board, notes that someone could therefore have been in a European country for a long time and then apply for asylum in another without the previous stay being detected.

The Migration Board also doesn’t automatically conduct a comprehensive check as to whether someone applying for Swedish citizenship already holds residence or citizenship in another EU country.

– We work mostly on indications, based on the information provided by the applicant, or if we get tips from outsiders, says Jenny Beauregard Camp, head of the Migration Board’s citizenship unit in Norrköping, to Sydsvenskan.

According to her, the authority lacks both technical tools and legal support for a full search for residence permits or citizenship in other European countries.

In the cases of Kassem and Jwad, there were also several warning signs. Forged IDs had been discovered, the key Iraqi certificate couldn’t be verified, addresses didn’t match, and official letters were returned. Even so, they passed through the system.

Swedish Citizenship Cannot Be Revoked

Now that the fraud has been uncovered, it doesn’t mean the Swedish citizenships can automatically be revoked. According to current Swedish law, granted citizenship is essentially irrevocable, even if it later emerges it was obtained through false information.

– Once a decision on citizenship is made, it is irreversible. There’s nothing we can do about it then, says Beauregard Camp.

She also notes that the authority does not assume that applicants are lying. TV2 reports that the couple now claims to have left Sweden for Iraq. In reality, according to the investigation, they still live in Denmark. They are still Swedish citizens.

Danish Politicians Demand Action

The revelation has sparked strong reactions in Denmark. Venstre, the Conservative Party, Liberal Alliance, Danish People’s Party, and the Denmark Democrats demand that the government investigate both the individual case and whether similar schemes are more widespread.

– It’s sheer madness. We’re making a laughingstock of ourselves with our own money, says Venstre’s migration policy spokesperson Morten Dahlin.

Danish People’s Party’s legal spokesperson Anders Vistisen suspects the family is not alone.

– I suspect this is more widespread, and it must be investigated.

He points, among other things, to the former Islamist and now writer Yaqoub Ali, who, after the TV2 documentary, stated that in some circles of the Iraqi community in Denmark, it’s a well-known phenomenon to try to obtain residency rights in two countries.

TV2’s own information also indicates that Danish authorities have, on several occasions, discovered people with rights in Denmark who were simultaneously registered in other countries, especially Sweden and the UK.

The problem is that such cases are often discovered by chance. Danish police do not have direct access to all social security and municipal records. Double registrations can thus emerge only when people are investigated for other crimes or, for example, are suspected of undeclared work and their fingerprints are checked.

Want to Revoke the Couple’s Danish Residence Permits

The Danish opposition parties are not satisfied with just an investigation. Morten Dahlin demands that the government examine the possibility of stripping Kassem and Jwad of both their Danish residence permits and public support.

– The government must find out how we can revoke the residence permits and disability pensions from these two people, who have cheated and defrauded.

Professor of law and asylum expert Jens Vedsted-Hansen describes the case as legally complex but emphasizes that the false documentation may have legal consequences. Seeking asylum in more than one EU country is not, in itself, a crime.

However, it is illegal to provide false information and use forged documents. According to Vedsted-Hansen, the scheme worked because the authorities in the respective countries lacked knowledge of what was happening on the other side of the Øresund.

The Danish Immigration Service states that the authority generally follows up on new information that may affect a person’s right to stay in the country and can initiate proceedings to revoke a residence permit if needed. The police in South Zealand and Lolland-Falster will not, for reasons of confidentiality, say whether any police report has been filed against Kassem and Jwad following the revelations.

Danish Minister: “Cold and Cynical”

Denmark’s Minister for Immigration and Integration, Morten Bødskov (S), reacts sharply to the information and now announces contacts with Sweden.

– Frankly, I get furious when I hear how the couple coldly and cynically deceived our society and lied their way into staying in Sweden to obtain benefits they were not entitled to.

He announces he will raise the issue with his Swedish counterpart. Meanwhile, there is an even darker part of the family’s history that remains unresolved.

The parents have been involved in several court cases regarding violence against their children. One of the daughters, Hawra, is also missing. The siblings suspect she may have been taken to Iraq and married off. They do not even know if she is still alive.

Kais Kassem has declined to be interviewed or answer TV2’s questions about the revelations. Salwa Jwad, on the other hand, admits central parts of the scheme—that she was already living in Denmark when she applied for asylum in Sweden, that she never actually lived there, and that she received Swedish benefits while also getting public support in Denmark. But she still insists she did not realize it was illegal.