Wikileaks and the Swedish Immigration Policy on Iraqi Refugees
Stockholm (AINA) — WikiLeaks released the largest classified military leak in history, reports that shed new light on the Swedish asylum and migration policy. Nuri Kino, a Swedish journalist who has reported extensively on Iraqi refugees in Sweden, is demanding that the documents should be used for decisions in every Iraqi asylum case in Sweden. Addressing Sweden’s minister of Migration, Tobias Billström, Mr. Kino said:
Do you need more proof than the 400,000 pages of American intelligence reports that cover the war from its beginning until now? The Iraqi army is trained and supported by the Iranian army. All those who have different views than the Shiite mullahs can and will be killed. The Iraqi police are infiltrated with terrorists. The Swedish jails that imprison arrested deportees are emptied every third week and almost immediately refilled with newly arrested Iraqis. Every third week an airliner departs filled with deportees guarded by the Swedish police.
The Swedish Aliens Act is written to protect persons from countries whose authorities cannot protect them. The Iraqi government cannot protect rejected asylum seekers who have been forcibly expelled from Sweden and dumped in Baghdad airport. You, Mr. Billström are going to reply to this with the excuse that Sweden has a legal system for refugees to appeal the Migration Board’s decision to the Migration Court of Appeals — this is why the system is just and legal. You are wrong. My colleagues and I have reported several times the defects in the asylum and refugee system. We have examined your system of justice and have arrived that it has major faults. Now bite into the sour apple and admit that it’s a mistake to forcibly deport many of the Iraqis who have been arrested by the Swedish police. Disregard your prestige and your career and think about human lives instead.
Susanne Palme in Sweden Radio’s community and current affairs program Studio One reported recently about these airplanes to Baghdad that depart every third week and that 8000 cases leading to an arrest have been given to the police. Sweden cooperates with Norway, Great Britain and Holland to hasten forced deportations. So far this year eleven specially chartered airplanes have departed for Baghdad organized by the police in Stockholm. The Iraqi refugees are given $100 and are handed over to the Iraqi authorities in Baghdad. This form of forcible deportation has been severely criticized by, among others, The UN’s refugee commission, UNCHR — something that Sweden wishes to ignore. Daniel Endres at the UNCHR offices in Baghdad called Iraq “a lawless land” where no one can count on for protection.
Now, that Wikileaks have released the intelligence reports that Swedish Television, and every other media outlet, have read and reported on, can the Migration Board, the Migration Court of Appeals or you, the Minister of Migration still maintain that Sweden has the right to deport Iraqi refugees? It is against the law in Sweden to deport people who cannot be protected in their homeland! Mosul has been called “Iraq’s murder capital.” Not long ago a Christian Iraqi was expelled back to Mosul from Sweden. “This is shocking!” UNHCR’s Daniel Endres stated. What he wasn’t aware of is that thousands of Christians from Iraq have been rejected and many who are from Mosul have been arrested and deported. To remain alive they had no choice but to flee Iraq once again. To stop these insidious deportations, Endres plans to visit a number of European capitals to openly protest and complain about the forced deportations that have been organized by the Swedish government.
I have personally followed many of the deportees and the great majority of them have fled to Iraq’s neighboring countries. A few of them have later been granted refugee status by the UN and are either on their way to the USA, Canada or Australia or have already arrived there. Mr. Billström, you are making Sweden look like an inhumane nation. People who arrived in our country in desperation, people who are in acute need protection are made to look like criminals by the very process of appealing for asylum. These are not gangsters; they are in need of help. If you don’t want them to have the right of protection in Sweden then you should cooperate with Jimmie Ã…kesson (head of the anti immigrant Swedish Democratic Party) and change the asylum law. You should be fighting for a new Alien Act where it’s stated it no longer makes any difference if you are personally persecuted in your homeland and that it’s not relevant if that country that you have fled from can protect you or not. Up to now the Swedish Migration Authorities are breaking the law when it, for example, deports a Sunni teacher who has worked as an interpreter for the Americans and is now accused of being a “spy” by a Shiite militias. They break the law when they expel victimized Christians and other vulnerable minorities to a country where the authorities cannot protect them. Now the question is if the Swedish Migration Authority’s and you, Tobias Billström, should be placed before a court of justice and, perhaps used as evidence against you, should be Wikileaks 400,000 pages of intelligence material.
Nuri Kino together with his colleague Kajsa Norell were winners of the European Parliaments Journalist Prize (AINA 10-13-2010).