Immigrant from Eritrea won lottery scratch card jackpot in Sweden

September 6, 2009 by  
Filed under Lottery Winners

An illegal immigrant from Eritrea who won a lottery scratch card jackpot in Sweden appeared on TV to collect his 1.2 million kronor ($167,000) lottery prize even though authorities have been trying to deport him for three years.

28 year old Tesfaldet Tesloy from Eritrea has lived in immigrant-friendly Sweden for six years since moving there to live with his brother who has been in the country for 20 years. In 2006 Tesloy was informed that his residence permit application had been rejected and he was scheduled for deportation however the Swedish Government says it has approximately 12,000 people awaiting deportation, which is a very difficult process to undertake for them. Sweden cannot simply send home these immigrants because under international law their home countries must accept them back before they can be deported unless the immigrant themselves agree to being sent home.

The lottery news of Tesloy’s lucky win has been deemed entirely legal by the Swedish National Lottery. Despite the lottery winner not having a Swedish personal identity number the young Eritrean man said he has managed to get a bank account, and can therefore receive his lottery winnings which are to be awarded to him by Sweden’s gaming giant Svenska Spel, who own and operate the Triss scratchcard game which gave him his windfall along with the Swedish National Lottery and a variety of other lottery games.

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