By Tenzin Monlam
DHARAMSHALA, MARCH 1: A man suspected to have ‘engaged in refugee espionage’ on Tibetan refugees living in Sweden has been arrested by the Swedish intelligence service on Sunday, according to reports. “The arrested man is suspected of having, at the request of another country, illegally gathered information about people in the Tibetan community in Sweden,” Sweden’s security agency SAPO said in a statement.
The Swedish Security Service added that the information were passed on to intelligence officers working for a foreign power.
The security agency has not yet disclosed the person’s name, nationality, the country he is allegedly working for or where he has been spying in the country.
The security service also mentioned that for sometime they have been following the man who was gathering information on the ‘Tibetan environment in Sweden’.
“Refugee espionage is a method to try to prevent refugees from expressing criticism of the regime in the country they have fled. It is also a way for the regime to try to get control over who has fled from home,” the agency said in its statement.
The country’s security service also assured that the agency has been ‘actively working’ to prevent and combat the refugee espionage occurring in the country.
Shocked over the news of them being the subject of espionage, Nyima Sherlhokangsar, head of Tibetan Community Organization in Sweden, told Sveriges Radio, a Swedish radio channel, “We, the Tibetans in Sweden, have a good community but it will now be broken when you hear such terrible news that there has been espionage (against us).”
Over 130 Tibetans live in the country.
