Read news from:
Austria
SHARE
COPY LINK

IMMIGRATION

Sweden deported family to wrong country

A family deported to Uzbekistan after Sweden rejected their application for asylum is set to return to Sweden after Uzbek authorities concluded that they were not from the central Asian country.

Published: 11 April 2011 13:32 CEST

The family were flown to Uzbekistan in a specially chartered plane on Friday, but are set to arrive back in Halland in western Sweden already on Monday.

“They are not Uzbeks, according to the Uzbek authorities,” said Marianne Paulsson at Halland police to the TT news agency.

The family will now undergo a new investigation into their application for asylum.

The case gained attention after Falkenberg municipal executive board urged the Migration Board (Migrationsverket) to reconsider its decision to deport the family.

But despite the appeal, the deportation was carried out on Friday in a plane carrying a number of other families.

“The Uzbek authorities have conducted a very thorough investigation and concluded that the family are definitely not from Uzbekistan and are not Uzbeks,” Marianne Paulsson said.

Paulsson explained that the identification documents held by the family were fakes and former places of residence given by them have been shown to be fabrications.

The Migration Court has previously ruled that the family is from Uzbekistan although the Migration Board has said that it believes the family could originate from Uzbekistan, Azerbajdzjan, Turkey, Georgia or elsewhere, Paulsson told TT.

The family will be returned to the Migration Board’s reception unit on their return to Sweden.

Deported people return to Sweden from time to time.

The Local reported in December 2010 on the case of a 52-year-old Iranian man after he was sent to neighbouring Iraq by mistake.

Member comments

Log in here to leave a comment.
Become a Member to leave a comment.

CRIME

Germany mulls expulsions to Afghanistan after knife attack

Germany said Tuesday it was considering allowing deportations to Afghanistan, after an asylum seeker from the country injured five and killed a police officer in a knife attack.

Published: 4 June 2024 14:50 CEST
Germany mulls expulsions to Afghanistan after knife attack

Officials had been carrying out an “intensive review for several months… to allow the deportation of serious criminals and dangerous individuals to Afghanistan”, Interior Minister Nancy Faeser told journalists.

“It is clear to me that people who pose a potential threat to Germany’s security must be deported quickly,” Faeser said.

“That is why we are doing everything possible to find ways to deport criminals and dangerous people to both Syria and Afghanistan,” she said.

Deportations to Afghanistan from Germany have been completely stopped since the Taliban retook power in 2021.

But a debate over resuming expulsions has resurged after a 25-year-old Afghan was accused of attacking people with a knife at an anti-Islam rally in the western city of Mannheim on Friday.

A police officer, 29, died on Sunday after being repeatedly stabbed as he tried to intervene in the attack.

Five people taking part in a rally organised by Pax Europa, a campaign group against radical Islam, were also wounded.

Friday’s brutal attack has inflamed a public debate over immigration in the run up to European elections and prompted calls to expand efforts to expel criminals.

READ ALSO: Tensions high in Mannheim after knife attack claims life of policeman

The suspect, named in the media as Sulaiman Ataee, came to Germany as a refugee in March 2013, according to reports.

Ataee, who arrived in the country with his brother at the age of only 14, was initially refused asylum but was not deported because of his age, according to German daily Bild.

Ataee subsequently went to school in Germany, and married a German woman of Turkish origin in 2019, with whom he has two children, according to the Spiegel weekly.

Per the reports, Ataee was not seen by authorities as a risk and did not appear to neighbours at his home in Heppenheim as an extremist.

Anti-terrorism prosecutors on Monday took over the investigation into the incident, as they looked to establish a motive.

SHOW COMMENTS