Sweden sentenced for trying to deport a Christian convert

In 2019, the UN interfered in deportation of an Afghan man, Abolfazl Abdoullahi. According to the Swedish Migration Agency, the convert’s choice to become a Christian was not genuine and was a means to stay in the country. When the Scandinavian human rights lawyers SHRL started a case, the UN stopped the deportation. The Torture Committee has now announced that the deportation of Abolfazl to Afghanistan constitutes a violation of Article 3 of the UN Convention against Torture.

“It is an extremely gratifying decision that we have been waiting for almost two years. We believe that our client is a genuine convert. It is undeniable that people who convert to Christianity face the death penalty and torture in Afghanistan, where persecution of Christians is at an extreme level”, says Ruth Nordström, lawyer Scandinavian human rights lawyers, in a statement on SHRL’s website.

The UN Committee against Torture writes in its decision that Swedish migration authorities have failed in their obligation to make an individualised assessment of the personal and real risk that the complainant would face in Afghanistan.

According to Nödstrom, Sweden has 90 days to inform the UN that the deportation will not be carried out. “The Swedish Migration Board will be obliged to reconsider his asylum application in accordance with the UN decision”, she writes in a Facebook post.

Treatment

Abolfazl’s parents and older brother were previously granted a temporary residence permit. Little brother Abolfazl, however, was denied a residence permit and threatened with deportation amid his father’s cancer treatment. The father has incurable cancer, and if the treatment in Sweden does not help, there is a need for additional cancer drugs, which is not available in Afghanistan.

The entire Abdoullahi family has been involved with the Church of Sweden and has undergone a conversion process. According to SHRL, they were baptised and have participated regularly in church gatherings and church activities in Uppsala since they moved there.