STOCKHOLM, Dec 22: The Swedish Migration Board came under fire on Thursday after revelations in the media of case workers celebrating the deportation of asylum seekers and their families with cake and champagne.

The celebrations have been harshly criticized, in particular by Swedish politicians, and calls have been voiced in the media for the resignation of Migration Board director Janna Valik.

One department head in the Kristianstad office in southern Sweden resigned from her job late on Wednesday after she was found to have organized such a celebration, Sweden’s newspaper of record Dagens Nyheter reported.

“We were invited to have cake and coffee to celebrate the deportation of a family,” one employee told the paper. The incident took place in the migration board’s offices in March last year.

Dagens Nyheter said that the employee who organized the party, Liz Sandgren, was forced to tender her resignation after the newspaper confronted the Migration Board with the information.

But the board insisted she chose to leave her job and had done so only temporarily while the Kristianstad office carries out an investigation.

In an email invitation to colleagues, Sandgren hailed the deportation of “our difficult woman. ... Let’s celebrate with cake and wish her and her children all the best in their home country!” —AFP