BancTec and the Swedish Government:Managing Migration Effectively

BancTec and the Swedish Government:Managing Migration Effectively

Case Study

Sweden is an interesting and beautiful country, which attracts hundreds of thousands of visitors each year. Some visit for a short time, while others want to live and work in this Nordic haven. Many of these people need a permit to enter and stay in the country, although not all secure one prior to arrival, instead applying for asylum upon arrival.

The Migration Board is Sweden’s central government authority responsible for overseeing the movement of all non-Swedes into and out of the country. The Board is responsible for a wide range of activities including:

Issuing permits for people visiting and settling in Sweden
Managing the asylum process, from application to residency or voluntary return home
Assessing requests for citizenship
Assisting voluntary return migration
Working with the European Union, United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees and other collaborative bodies
Ensuring that all relevant public authorities work together satisfactorily.

Storage space up, service levels down

The Migration Board’s goal is to treat all individuals as equals and to make consistent, timely decisions relating to their applications to visit or enter the country. Achieving this goal has been challenging due to the huge volume of paperwork associated with the processing of applications and the physical distance between the Board in Sweden and its embassies and consulates abroad.

Hundreds of thousands of visa applications and many thousands of requests for political asylum and citizenship are received each year. Around 1600 members of staff in Sweden process the applications. This results in the generation of millions of documents, of different types, which must be stored forever. The Migration Board found that not only were they experiencing obvious storage problems, but it was taking far too long to process applications and they were unable to offer satisfactory levels of customer service in the event of an enquiry. The processing of applications submitted by asylum seekers and refugees is a perfect example.

Processing applications: lengthy and complex

As a party to the UN Refugee Convention, Sweden must grant asylum to people defined in the Convention as refugees. Convention refugees are those who fear persecution in their native country due to their race, nationality, affiliation to a particular social group and/or their religious or political opinions. Under Swedish law people who are not Convention refugees, but are nevertheless in need of protection (because they fear capital punishment, persecution due to gender or sexuality, or originate from a war torn region or country suffering from environmental disaster) may also qualify for asylum.

Most people granted asylum in Sweden are given a permanent residence permit, which allows them to stay in the country for good. Clearly, such permits are not granted freely.

Asylum seekers submit an application for residency to the Migration Board, which decides whether the reasons for applying are justified. Some cases are far more complex than others, requiring a significant amount of investigation, which generates a mountain of documentation. All documentation relating to an individual applicant, in the form of interview notes, case notes, supporting documentation etc., must be stored in a case file.

In the past, case files at the Migration Board were stored in paper format. The files were difficult to compile in one location due to the geographical spread of Migration Board staff, and they consumed a lot of space. The majority of applicants who are refused asylum lodge an appeal, which can take up to a year, during which time the asylum seekers are required to participate in organised activities such as Swedish lessons, or in some form of community service. In exchange, those without funds of their own receive financial support, medical and dental care. All of these activities generate paperwork, which must be maintained in the evergrowing case file forever. In addition, it is often difficult to locate case files when required, resulting in further delays and poor service.

Time for radical change

By March 2000 the Migration Board realised that they had to address three operational inefficiencies: the amount of time taken to process applications, the physical transfer of documents between foreign offices and the Migration Board, and the amount of space required to store their files. The Board formed a project team drawn from the IT and line of business departments that would be affected by the new system. The role of this team was to identify possible solutions. The team determined that an enterprise-wide information management system was required, and developed very specific criteria by which to test potential suppliers. The Swedish Migration Board selected BancTec to supply the system.

BancTec in action

Following the signing of the contract in May 2000 BancTec formed its own project team, consisting of one project manager, one quality assurance professional, one system architect and three developers. The team worked closely with staff to ensure that the solution would meet all of the Migration Board’s requirements. The initial task, which took around two months, was to compile a detailed functional specification. This element of the project was critical because it shaped the development of the system. Design and development work was carried out between July and September, prior to the acceptance testing which was conducted in October. After a further three months of training and preparing for production, the Migration Board began its internal rollout. By March 2001, rollout was complete and the system was fully operational.

Managing Migration Effectively

eFIRST archive is ideally suited to large organisations, such as the Migration Board, for Internet-based document handling and information management. It is web-enabled, making data and images available throughout the organisation. In general terms, the BancTec solution will enable users within the Migration Board to find and retrieve all information, regardless of where it was created or how it is stored, via the organisation’s intranet. At the current time the system is available for use by staff in Sweden, but it is not yet accessed by the foreign offices, embassies and consulates. Most of the case files for new applications are now managed online. The vast range of documents associated with requests for asylum and citizenship, including maps, completed forms, questionnaires, proof of identity, interview notes, certificates etc., are scanned into the system and stored within eFIRST archive, grouped by applicant case file. In addition, the system is closely integrated with Microsoft Word, allowing documents to be stored directly in eFIRST archive.

And the Beat Goes on...

The volume of existing documentation and application processing workload at the Migration Board is such that it may take several years for the system to be fully implemented. The project team is still in place, overseeing the backfile conversion and new application processing task. In implementing the BancTec solution the Migration Board has addressed two of the three operational inefficiencies that they set out to address (reducing processing time and storage space). The solution has provided a strong, enduring platform from which to build on, and the Board is in the process of investigating ways to extend the system to improve communication and flow of documents between its foreign offices and the staff in Sweden.