WHEN SAVKA* WAS 15 years old she was forced by her father to marry a man who used drugs and was aggressive. After some time, she gave birth to a daughter who died after two months. She left her husband and returned to her father who sold her to a man in Sweden after one week’s time. When Savka refused to go she was abused by her father.
SHORTLY AFTERWARDS THREE men came and took her by force from her home country in South Eastern Europe to a town in the western part of Sweden. She was locked in during two months and was abused several times before she was taken to an apartment in the central parts of Sweden, owned by the man she was sold to. In his apartment she was raped many times by that man and his father before she managed to escape.
AFTER HER ESCAPE, Savka applied for asylum and the Scandinavian Human Rights Lawyers were appointed as her public counsels. Despite coming to Sweden as a victim of human trafficking, the Swedish Migration Board decided to deny her application for protection.
SAVKA'S APPEALS WERE also rejected. She was banned from returning to to Sweden and the case was handed over to the police authorities for execution.
* Savka is really called something else.
Trafficking Case – Madeleine and her son
MADELEINE* APPLIED FOR asylum in Sweden in 2009. Madeleine, an orphan, had previously been forced to prostitution since she was a child in her home country in western Africa and was imprisoned after having participated in a pornographic movie. When she was released she fled the country out of fear of being imprisoned or forced to prostitution again. She was furthermore afraid that she would be met by reprisals by civils because of the pornographic movie in which she had participated. She ended up in Sweden and applied for asylum. Her application was rejected, even after appeals.
THE MIGRATION BOARD opened a new asylum case at a later stage and this time Scandinavian Human rights Lawyers were appointed as public counsels. The application was again denied and Madeleine and her son were expelled to Africa, even though the son had been born in Sweden to Madeleine and a man who was a European citizen. Madeleine appealed the decision to the Migration Court of Appeal on the grounds that she had been a victim of trafficking in her home country and was still in need of support and help in many regards. Through intense work the Scandinavian Human Rights Lawyers managed to establish evidence of citizenship in Europe for Madeleine’s son. Because of this and because of the special needs of the family and also the rights of the child, Madeleine and her son were granted permanent residence permits in Sweden.
THE MIGRATION BOARD has appealed the decision and asked for leave to appeal with the Migration Court of Appeal, a final decision is expected soon.
* Madeleine is really called something else.
Conversion case subject to examination from the European Court
SCANDINAVIAN HUMAN RIGHTS LAWYERS represent Mohammad * from Afghanistan, who applied for asylum in Sweden because of family circumstances. During his stay in Sweden, he came in contact with Christians and eventually converted to Christianity. Mohammad is baptized and shows every sign of being a true Christian. Swedish authorities have however made the assessment that his conviction is not genuine. The decision to deport Mohammad has been appealed to domestic courts and all domestic remedies have been exhausted.
THE SWEDISH MIGRATION Board has not made any assessment of how genuine Mohammad's conviction is since before October 2013, shortly after the conversion. After this point only new circumstances are considered by the authorities. Considering the long period of time that has lapsed without reevaluation this can be equated to not getting any consideration at all of a conversion, which is in contravention of the European Court of Human Rights (see eg F. G. against Sweden 43611/11, G.C.., March 23, 2016). It has e.g. not been a fact of consideration that Muhammad has lived as a Christian for four years and the assessment of his conviction has in several ways been arbitrary. Muhammad’s conversion is definitely perceived as genuine by the compatriots who exposed him to persecution in Sweden.
SWEDISH AUTHORITIES HAVE decided to expel Mohammed to Afghanistan, where he fears for his life and faces the death penalty, torture and inhuman and degrading treatment. In Afghanistan, according to Sharia, a convert who is revealed has three days to take back the conversion and profess Islam. This means that a convert who returns to Afghanistan can not practice his/her faith openly without being punished. A deportation would constitute a violation of Article 2 and Article 3 of the European Convention on Human Rights and Fundamental Freedoms (ECHR).
SCANDINAVIAN HUMAN RIGHTS LAWYERS made a so-called Rule 39 notification to the European Court, which decided to stay the deportation of Mohammed. The deportation is now stayed until further notice. The Swedish government and Scandinavian Human Rights Lawyers have since May 2016 made written submissions to the European Court in the case.
Trafficking Case - "Josephine" and her daughter
Josephine* and her five year old daughter was tricked into traveling from Nigeria to Italy, hoping to escape threats from both her husband and the police because of a lesbian relationship that Josephine had. Once they arrived in Italy they found that they had ended up in the hands of traffickers. These traffickers tried to force Josephine into prostitution, but when she refused to sell her body, she and her daughter were locked in a room. One day several men raped and abused Josephine for several hours, an abuse that her daughter had to witness at gunpoint. Since traffickers were discussing how they could get rid of her daughter, they sought help from another prostitute woman to escape from Italy to Sweden where they eventually sought asylum. Despite threats to both of them and their fragile psychological state, the Migration Board decided to reject their applications for residence permits and transfer them to Italy, which under the Dublin regulation, is the first country of asylum.
Human rights lawyers came to the assistance of Josephine and her daughter in the appeal of the decision. Swedish courts rejected / denied the appeal. A so-called Rule 39 notification was therefore made to the European Court to stop the transfer to Italy. Scandinavian Human Rights Lawyers question why Sweden has not obtained individual guarantees for Josephine and her daughter's safety from the Italian authorities. Josephine and her daughter's health condition and the threats that exist in Italy means that the two are at risk of being subjected to inhuman and degrading treatment if transferred to Italy.
Following a complaint by Scandinavian Human Rights Lawyers the European Court decided to suspend the deportation and requested that the Swedish government would respond concerning any guarantees obtained from Italy. The individual guarantees should assure Josephine and her daughter the support of the Italian government in a way that responds to their needs. Since Sweden only stated that general guarantees from Italy had been given by Italy, the stay of the deportation has been extended.
The case is still pending and the Scandinavian Human Rights Lawyers continue to work for Josephine and her daughter’s right to stay in Sweden.
*Name has been changed.
Read articles about Josephine’s case here:
http://www.dagen.se/traffickingoffer-riskerar-avvisning-till-italien-1.805052
http://www.varldenidag.se/nyheter/europadomstolen-stoppade-utvisning/Bbbplo!S3LhEjDuUNPoY7AnhXho@Q/
Human Trafficking Case – Maria" and her children
Human Trafficking Case – Maria and her children
Maria* is from Nigeria but moved to France, because she had been promised a job. Instead, she ended up in the hands of traffickers in France. The job in fact meant forced prostitution. She was also taken to Italy and was forced to sell sex for a long period of time. The traffickers even tattooed her body to indicate their ownership. After ten years in prostitution and several escape attempts, Maria finally succeeded to flee the country and arrived in Sweden where she applied for a residence permit for herself and her new-born twins. However, the Swedish Migration Board decided to transfer them back to Italy.
Scandinavian Human Rights Lawyers represented Maria and the children in their appeal against the authority’s decision. The Dublin Regulation, which asserts that asylum claims should be done in Italy which was Maria first point of entry into Europe, was cited as the reason for sending Maria and her family back to Italy. However, Scandinavian Human Rights Lawyers argued that the Migration Court must make an exception in Maria case. According to art. 3.2 of the Dublin regulation exceptions can be made if there are systemic weaknesses in the recipient country’s asylum procedure. In addition, the article obliges a state to take into serious consideration an applicant’s risk of being subjected to inhuman or degrading treatment.
Migration Court made the assessment that although the different circumstances in Marias cases were not in themselves enough to constitute reasons for an exception, there was an overall strong humanitarian reason to not transfer Maria and her two children to Italy. In its decision, the Court further considered the principle of the child’s best interest. The Migration Court’s decision concerning this exception to the Dublin regulation is in principle unique and clears weigh for new practice within the area.
Maria and her two children can now, thanks to the decision, have their asylum applications examined in Sweden.
*Name has been changed.