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Sweden halts deportations to Eritrea

The move comes following an email sent on Thursday to all police authorities in Sweden to not forcibly deport people to Eritrea. "From what I understand the Migration Board is planning to stop these type of

The move comes following an email sent on Thursday to all police authorities in Sweden to not forcibly deport people to Eritrea.

“From what I understand the Migration Board is planning to stop these type of forced deportations. That’s why we’ve made this decision,” Sören Clerton, head of the border control unit with Sweden’s National Bureau of Investigation (NBI) told the TT news agency.

Clerton added that police have had talks with both the Migration Board and human rights group Amnesty about the situation in Eritrea.

According to Amnesty, Sweden is the only country in Europe that has continued to deport people to Eritrea in recent years.

“It’s a real problem that Sweden has made a faulty assessment of the risks in Eritrea,” Madelaine Seidlitz, a lawyer with Amnesty in Sweden, told TT.

In an Amnesty report due to be published later in May, the human rights group argues that refugees are viewed as criminals in Eritrea.

“Countless numbers of people have been imprisoned arbitrarily after having been arrested when they try to cross the border,” Amnesty writes, adding that people can be held for up to three years and that their family members can also be arrested.

Nearly all Eritreans who apply are granted asylum in Sweden, the TT news agency reports. The approval rate so far this year is 96 percent. But in some cases, applications are denied and people are deported back to Eritrea. In 2012, 19 people were deported and so far this year four people have been sent back, two of whom were forcibly deported.

Amnesty claims that Eritreans who seek asylum abroad are seen as traitors by the regime and risk being arrested and tortured upon their return.

“We’re looking at that question: is the fact that someone sought asylum in and of itself enough for them to be harmed? Hopefully, I’ll be able to have a ruling on the matter early next week,” Fredrik Beijer, acting general counsel with the Migration Board, told TT.

In the meantime, no one will be deported to Eritrea.

TT/The Local/dl

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12 COMMENTS
  • KFLOM May 11, 2013

    Good news. Sweden was supposed to know more about the situation in Eritrea. Why Sweden was ignorant is inconceivable. Any way i congratulate to all those who fought hard against such act of ignorance.
    How ever Eritreans who support the regime in Eritrea to take note what is coming. The change is coming and all who sided with insane regime will be very sorry for all what they have done by helping this corrupt and murderer unlawful shifta regime.

  • ማሊሻ May 11, 2013

    Thank you Sweden and the Eritrean-Swedish community,

    There is no doubt that Eritrean asylum seekers from all over the world will flock to Sweden as they did the last five years of 40,000 Eritreans into Israel and more than 10,000 into Switzerland.
    No wonder the Eritrean army is left an empty shell of few thousand aging peasants.
    Will the Arab regimes of Sudan, Egypt, Libya and Djibouti learn from the civilized nations of Europe such as Sweden and Great Britain as well as the USA.

  • josef May 11, 2013

    Honestly sweden was right in deporting the asylum seekers because it’s a favorite destination of fake “trit hgdef” asylum seekers, once they get their papers and benefitts they go to swedish media offices chanting nihna nsu nsu nihna. Its hard to know who is who.

  • Kalighe May 12, 2013

    == A foolish way of doing business with neighbors ==

    “Global Financial Integrity last year said Addis Ababa lost $11.7 billion in outflows of illegal funds in the past decade.”

    Kabbire, NEW HOPE and few more Tigrayans on this forum have been trying their best to tell us that, Ethiopia is the last Utopia of Democracy on planet.
    However, this latest news opens up a tip of an iceberg of Ethiopian underworld business dealings.
    It’s true that Eritrea has a brutal regime, but who is to blame ?, why these people have to insult the country and it’s people, unless motivated by boundless hate.
    These small men who pose here and on Asmarino as Eritreans, could be Tigrayans who lived for a while in Eritrea, they have too much hate cannot be explained easily.
    It’s important to note here that, many issues they raise are divisive and loaded with insults to Eritrea and it’s people. They seem to forget that the dictator and the top most echelon of the fascist regime in Eritrea is made of Tigreyans who suffer from identity crisis.
    Needless to say, that Ethiopia is a developing country, like every African country who has just started to experiment with Democracy, it can also fail. But we Eritreans wish them only well and success on their journey to achieve Democracy.
    On the other hand, we want our Tigrayan friends to know that, there is a long way for them to go before they can start selling their system to us, they are not yet there. Besides, no one buys a product with insults, it could be a marketing ala ‘Mekele’ but it’s a foolish way of doing business with neighbors.

    • josef May 12, 2013

      Remember those who are slaughtering eritreans are arabs and not tigrayans like you say, but you Won’t say anything against them cos you’re coward, right? Drbay bdewu zmote.

      • Kalighe May 12, 2013

        Sirahka ghiber anta dirbay ..
        350 shih ahwatka iyen mis Areb sireha zelwa.

    • aba-chegora May 12, 2013

      Selam,
      You have to understand the fact that one cant not be true eritrean without having an ethiopian background. That is a simple fact. If we eritreans deny our ethiopian background, we are just fooling ourselves. wake up and smell the coffee. Ethiopians are and will remain our historical brothers even though we have two independent countries. IF YOU DENY YOUR ETHIOPIAN BACKGROUD, YOU ARE EITHER AN ARAB OR NIGERIAN ( TEKURIR)

      • Kalighe May 12, 2013

        Don’t try to confuse people. Ethiopia includes mainly non-Habesha groups such as Oromo, Somalis ..etc. and by the way Habeshas are minorities in Ethiopia. Ethnic supremacists like you equate Ethiopia with only Habesha groups in that country. It stands to reason then that some Eritreans are Habesha but have never been Ethiopians . Who said Ethiopia is center of universe ?. You better see a doctor.

      • Teckle May 14, 2013

        Speak for yourself Agame
        Bdewu Zmote

  • tsige May 12, 2013

    good job

  • ማሊሻ May 12, 2013

    New Hope and Kabire,
    you guys must have hit a sensitive nerve in “Kalighe”, the typical Kelbi Arab. Our proud ancestors have a saying “ab kndi qeranat ngwaEmamat”. Instead of challenging his Arab masters and the leaders in Asmara, Kalighe is talking about you and “Tigrayans”. It was only yesterday that he was worshiping Issaias as his “Eritrean god” that he carried him on his back from Nakfa to asmara, which he is accusing Issaias now of being Tigrayan. Tigray is no more the place where you throw your garbages. If you have the balls, try to throw him to your Arab gods. As far as I am concerned, Issaias and his gangs are as Eritrean as Cathedrale or Tselot can be. My disagreement with Issaias starts and ends with his politics only.
    if Kalighe thinks Issaias is Tigrayan, there is nothing for Issaias to be ashamed of. Tigrayans are the current masters of the Horn of Africa. Not a minor achievement for people who started from few wefcho biet/ Tehanit makina to manufacturing their own tanks, 152 mm howitzers, and (Isreali style) drones, impressive universities and colleges … while you are burning your own languages and finally ending up in Arab slavery.
    If the Arab slave thinks, he is better than the Tigrayan, let him dare to take Badme and other villages awarded to Eritrea from the Tigrayans.

    Thank you for asking difficult questions where many people do not want to touch as “sacred” debri. Don’t be discouraged, if some of the people here are trying to shut you up in the name of “Suwuat”. As teklay noted above, we are currently here as slaves in Eritrea burning our own languages and identity and as Abeeds in the Arab world, because many people who asked difficult questions but very critical ones were killed as in sreyt Addis, Fallul, Menkae and G-15 by the Jebha and Shaebia gangs.
    I am only surprised why are many Eritreans not asking important and critical questions.
    enteseliTwom: Had you been living in Eritrea under a new regime of the present diaspora, of so called opposition, you would have ended up in Karsheli Abi smelling May bela, in bitweded’s current cell or executed by a firing squad of the present opposition.
    Eritrea has along way to go but I have a lot of hope in the young generation, not the old slaves of the Jebha-Shaebia gangs who have no shame to burn Eritrean languages and heritage.

    keep on writing whenever possible

  • Kalighe May 13, 2013

    To: New Hope ,Kabire, ማሊሻ (shifta) and their likes who are posing like Eritreans

    Please have some decency, and stop hiding like rats. Instead, show openly who you are and let’s discuss your concerns, if you have any. Besides, since you continue insulting Eritreans as Arab ‘kedemti’ whenever you come here, and you deserve a response in kind, let’s see who is more ‘kedami’:

    1. The number of Ethiopians who die every year crossing the Red Sea, through Djibouti, to look for a job in poor Yemen is not less than those of poor Somalis who take the perilous journey to escape their war ravaged country.

    2. The export of unskilled Ethiopian labor to Middle Eastern countries is in the rise. An approximate estimate of maids who constitute 90% to the exported labor force, is around 350 thousands. More accurate data can be found from yearly statics published about expatriate labor force in these countries. Ethiopian maids are gradually replacing some Asian domestic helpers, because of cost factors and language learning skills (yes, speak better Arabic, than Bengalis). There is nothing to be ashamed about all these, I am just showing you that, fortunately, you have at least twice more ‘kedemti’ working in these countries. They are fortunate enough to make some money for their families, and adding millions in hard currency that Ethiopia needs badly. Thanks to job opportunities given to them by Arab countries, many poor Ethiopians now can feed better their kids.

    3. I have a lot of respect for our neighbors (including Ethiopia, of course), as long as they remain within their limits, and don’t lecture Eritreans on the greatness of their nation, simply because we are unfortunate to have a dictatorship at home. We too have a lot to be proud of in our country once the brutal regime is gone, and we are not ready to take insults from anyone, no matter who.

    4. There is hate monger here who seem to have an axe to grind with Eritrea. These are some Tigreyans who lived in Eritrea, and seem to be familiar with the country and some of the problems it’s facing (the same people who are killing us at home). They are not welcome to meddle in our affairs or continuously pose as Eritreans as if this is a smart game to play with Eritreans. If you think because Eritreans have dictatorship at home , therefore, they hate their country or they can be conditioned to hate their ‘Gedli’ and accepted their martyrs insulted, or have nostalgia for Ethiopian colonial brutal master, you must be really stupid to the core.

    5. Believe me, I appreciate what Ethiopia has achieved under Melles. There is a visible improvement in many areas of economy. But, there is still a long way to go before Ethiopia can be called a democratic country.

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