Boy stitches his own mouth to protest deportation, but Swedish government planning to pack-him off
A 15-year-old boy from Afghanistan
who sewed his mouth shut after his application for Swedish residency
was rejected will be deported to Italy, in what a Swedish MEP called a
“humanitarian catastrophe in my own country”, the Swedish Local newspaper reported.
Despite reports of abuse and rape suffered by the boy in Italy, the Swedish Migration Board (Migrationsverket) has decided not to make an official request to the Swedish border police to re-open the case of the boy, who is set to be deported back to Italy.
Earlier on Wednesday, a Migration Board official hinted the agency wanted to re-open the case, but the border police said no.
“The police make their own assessment,” said Peter Norén, head of the Malmö border police, to Sveriges Radio (SR).
“There is nothing more peculiar about this case than any other case involving refugee children arriving alone to Sweden. And we won’t be handing the case back to the Migration Board.”
15-year-old Ali arrived to Sweden from Italy during the winter and is being sent back there in accordance with the European Union Dublin Regulation, stipulating that illegal immigrants must be sent back to the country where they entered the EU.
However, representatives for the troubled teen say that he is highly traumatized by his experiences in Italy where he claims he was badly beaten by border guards and sexually abused in a refugee camp.
Annette Cromwell, who represents the boy, said he at first refused to discuss what had happened to him before eventually opening up.
“But then he told of these horrible things that had happened to him,” she told the TT news agency.
According to Cromwell, the boy told of going without food or water at a refugee camp in Italy, of being beaten by Italian border police, and of being raped by three men while staying at the camp.
“One man held his arms behind his back and laid him down on his stomach, another spread his legs apart, and the third man raped him. And then they switched until all three had done it,” said Cromwell.
Ali was admitted to the child and youth psychiatry ward (Barn- och ungdomspsykiatrin, BUP) for the first time in April this year shortly after his application for residency in Sweden had been denied.
“When we got the rejection they phoned us from his accommodation. Then he had sewed up his mouth. We took him to hospital and he was admitted to BUP,” Cromwell told SR. Read more
Despite reports of abuse and rape suffered by the boy in Italy, the Swedish Migration Board (Migrationsverket) has decided not to make an official request to the Swedish border police to re-open the case of the boy, who is set to be deported back to Italy.
Earlier on Wednesday, a Migration Board official hinted the agency wanted to re-open the case, but the border police said no.
“The police make their own assessment,” said Peter Norén, head of the Malmö border police, to Sveriges Radio (SR).
“There is nothing more peculiar about this case than any other case involving refugee children arriving alone to Sweden. And we won’t be handing the case back to the Migration Board.”
15-year-old Ali arrived to Sweden from Italy during the winter and is being sent back there in accordance with the European Union Dublin Regulation, stipulating that illegal immigrants must be sent back to the country where they entered the EU.
However, representatives for the troubled teen say that he is highly traumatized by his experiences in Italy where he claims he was badly beaten by border guards and sexually abused in a refugee camp.
Annette Cromwell, who represents the boy, said he at first refused to discuss what had happened to him before eventually opening up.
“But then he told of these horrible things that had happened to him,” she told the TT news agency.
According to Cromwell, the boy told of going without food or water at a refugee camp in Italy, of being beaten by Italian border police, and of being raped by three men while staying at the camp.
“One man held his arms behind his back and laid him down on his stomach, another spread his legs apart, and the third man raped him. And then they switched until all three had done it,” said Cromwell.
Ali was admitted to the child and youth psychiatry ward (Barn- och ungdomspsykiatrin, BUP) for the first time in April this year shortly after his application for residency in Sweden had been denied.
“When we got the rejection they phoned us from his accommodation. Then he had sewed up his mouth. We took him to hospital and he was admitted to BUP,” Cromwell told SR. Read more
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