For me the issue of refoulement is very personal. It has faces and names.
Inclusive my late fiancee; a total of four out of seven close asylum seeker friends (adopted family at this point), whom I met at the Migrant camps in Vintergatan, Säffle (2001 & 2008) and in Deje (2013) were refouled by Sweden with disastrous consequences.
At the Swedish migrant camps people shed their nationality derived personna. Internees do not see themselves as (for example) *Syrian*, *Afghan* or *Ukrainian* or *Chinese*; as a matter of individual survival and collective self preservation, the situation quickly forces on them into a new collective tribal identity: asylsökande. Diverse versions of accented *Broken English* is the lingua franca of this tribe.
I call it *The Inverted Tower of Babel Effect*.
If someone wants to observe internationslist solidarity against a common adversary in action; all they have to do is visit a Swedish migrant camp (if these still exist in the mid-2020's), and watch how the interned migrants collaborate with each other and care for each other: safety in numbers, because we all are in the same boat surviving against *them* (Migrationsverket och Granspolisen).
I lived in Sweden mostly in the Karlstad-Forshaga-Hammarö region of Värmland but also for short periods in Göteborg, Uppsala, Malmö and Halmstad. I was in Sweden from June 2001 to May 2005; then from January 2006 to May 2016, and finally from December 2016 to February 2024. In context, I also had short stints in Norway in 2005 & 2008 (Bergen), 2016 & 2022 (Trondheim).
The following are the names of adopted family from Vintergatan and Deje who were refouled by Sweden during my time inside The Yellow Curtain (what I call the borders of Sweden). A roll-call of shame:
*Last names omitted in respect of asylum secrecy and anonymity*
Ysmael. From Turkey. We lived together in a migrant apartment in Vintergatan (Säffle) for about one year between July 2001 and September 2002. He was an army deserter. He sought asylum in Sweden. He was rejected and returned to Turkey in 2003 where he was subjected to violence by the military police upon arrival. In partnership with a civil war survivor from Bosnia, Ysmael managed to survive clandestinely in Göteborg for about 8 months after his second negative; until he was caught, incarcerated in the förvaret archipelago and then deported to Turkish military police custody sometime in September 2003. Last I saw him he was boarding a bus to Göteborg in Säffle in October 2002. He told me he got his second nagative and had to get lost.
Yusuf. My late fiancee. He had been involved with Arab Spring related protests in his city in North Africa in 2011. He sought asylum in Sweden in 2012. He was murdered as a direct result of refoulement carried out by the Swedish Border Police in October 2013. Yusuf migrated to Europe via Spain and France to Sweden in 2011. He was forcibly refouled to Tchad (Tašād) by the Swedish Border Police, a country he did not come from (from the detention center at Kållered he emailed me that he was hoping to be sent back to Spain because he entered the Schengen Zone there. That was the last communication I had from him). At the time he was refouled to Tchad (Tašād) the country was in the midst of civil conflict derived from the aftermath of the 2011 fall of Muammar al-Gaddafi in Lybia. Tchad (Tašād) had been a Lybian protectorate before 2011 and after the fall of Muammar al-Gaddafi the country imploded into violence. After Yusuf was deported there in October 2013 Yusuf attempted to leave Tchad via Sudan and then Egypt; as he was nearing the Sudanese border he was set upon a group of armed men and killed. Yusuf and I were planning to get married in March of 2014 at Lövnäskyrkan in Hammarö. He was detained by the Swedish Border Police in September 2013 and refouled in October 2013. Someone from an NGO found an address book on Yusuf's person and was kind enough to email his sister in Rabat about what happened. She emailed me to tell me in January 2014.
I last saw Yusuf the morning of September 5, 2013. We had planned to have dinner out that evening. I found out he had been detained when he contacted me from the förvaret a few days latter.
Guy. We met at the migrant camp in Deje in 2013, where I lived six months. He was from the Sahel region of Africa. Francophone. We became friends because we both lived with dwarfism. It was he who introduced me to Yusuf. About one month before I departed from the Deje camp he was taken by Swedish Granspolisen to the förvaret at Flen to be deported. He was a journalist; wanted in his country for writing newspaper articles critical of the government. With help from France, Sweden returned him. I learned later from an NGO contact we both had been associated with; that upon arrival at the airport, after being deported; he was seized by police, his baggage was confiscated and then brutally beaten.
Orhan. From Kurdistan. We met in the spring of 2008 at Stadsmissionen in Karlstad when we were both homeless and papperslösa (*). We became close friends. Migrationsverket gave asylum to his son of five, but denied it to him. The socialen took his son from him directly from the daggis (daycare center) without notifying him. The police ruled he "smoked marijuana infront of the boy", an assertion that he denied. Custody of the boy was legally taken from him. His son was subsequently adopted by a childless Swedish couple, Orhan learned later. When he complained, he was told he should be "grateful his son would grow up in Sweden". Insult added to injury. Just after summer 2009, Orhan left Sweden for Germany. Last I heard from him was early 2010. Orhan was working washing dishes black somewhere in Leipzig. He was looking for his brother there. I never heard from Orhan again.
(*) I was homeless and papperslösa in Karlstad, Sweden between March 2008 and April 2011.
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Not Refouled, but **F*cked Over Anyways***
Samir. He was not refouled, but run out of Sweden. A close friend from Iraq. He was supportive when I was in the streets. We met in Karlstad at a church in 2010. We became close friends after he learned I was papperslösa. He helped me when he could. They made his life a living hell at his work because he looked "Moslem" (they meant Arabic), even though he was an Iraqi Christian. He told me of several incidents of abuses and insults he had endured in Sweden since he arrived in 2006. He got in with the amnesty that year. He became fed up with Sweden and relocated to Canada sometime in 2011.
Juan C. From the Caribbean. We met in the migrant camp in Deje. We lived in the same room for six months. We became friends out of *cultural affinity* (maybe). After he got his second nagative; he immediately fled to Norway where his wife and child were waiting for him. Juan was wanted by the secret police in his native jurisdiction and had concrete evidence of it; but Sweden still said "no" to his application. He also presented his passport. He did all that was required of him and Sweden still said "no". The last time I saw him in Sweden was at the Karlstad bus station, I was with him while he waited for the bus to Oslo. I remember him saying he now understood why people lied when they applied for asylum in Sweden - because it does not matter if you show evidence of your identity or to back up your case. They still say *no* in order to just take people out of the system.
Jorge R. From South America. A situation similar to Orhan, but involving a daughter. The socialen took custody of the girl and the Granspolisen deported the mother. Jorge attempted to kidnap his daughter back and then run to Spain. But it did not work. He was arrested by the Polisen, tried and sentenced to five years prison. His temporary permit was taken from him. He was deported in 2017.
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I am a committed advocate for the abolition of walk-in asylum at the UN and EU levels; and its replacement with Vetted Quota Migration.
Walk-in asylum is a failed system that mostly creates anti-humanitarian outcomes for migrants at exhorbitant cost for citizen taxpayers. Only a small number of asylum applicants obtain a residence permit.
It is an expensive and failed system that murders people.
Vetted Quota Migration is the humane alternative to walk-in asylum.