Esteemed Ambassador of the Socialist Republic of Vietnam in Sweden;
My name is [Andres Nicolas Moran]. I am a person [original to the State of Florida, USA] currently being held hostage at a migrant detention center operated by the Swedish Migration Board at Åstorp, Skåne (Sweden). I approach you with a formal request for political asylum. I am currently being held hostage under the name "Miguel Angel Toores" (sic.) on orders of the Swedish Border Police. The Swedish Border Police are under the mistaken impression that I am interested in staying in Sweden without permission and furthermore that I have the intention of seeking to obtain their overvalued residence permit by subterfuge. That I am a so-called "flight risk".
[An article about my pre-pandemic experience (2019-21) with the Swedish immigration system was published here:
The "flight risk" loophole is the universal excuse that Swedish Police use to negate the Human Right to presumption of innocence to persons of an immigrant background. Swedish jails, prisons and detention centers are currently overfilled with immigrant inmates whose Human Right to presumption of innocence has been collectively and systematically violated under the said pretext. I was interned at the remand prison at Ystad, Skåne for three weeks in January 2023 BEFORE being tried, under the excuse of being an alleged "flight risk"; I was interned in a prison environment while being in a legal state of innocence. I have not been compensated for this, even though the rules say that a person is to be compensated for time spent in unlawful deprivation of liberty (no one is compensated as a result of the "flight risk" loophole, I am told). On 1 April 2018 new European rules allegedly strengthening the guarantee that anyone suspected or accused in criminal proceedings is innocent until proven guilty came into effect; but Sweden ignores these rules by abusing the "flight risk" loophole its Justice Ministry concocted in 2019.
I.
Sweden's hypocritical view of Socialist Vietnam:
(1) The Swedish Foreign Ministry claims about the Socialist Republic of Vietnam: "Respect for human rights shows serious shortcomings. Human rights defenders, journalists and other media actors are regularly arrested and sentenced on arbitrary grounds."
Article 9 of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights: "No one shall be subjected to arbitrary arrest, detention or exile."
Article 11 of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights: "Everyone charged with a penal offense has the right to be presumed innocent until proved guilty."
I have already commented on the systematic violation and negation of presumption of innocence Human Rights for persons with immigrant backgrounds in Sweden through the systematic abuse of the "flight risk" loophole. Immigrants (especially those of an African and/or Arabic background) are regularly harassed, arrested, imprisoned and sentenced on arbitrary grounds by private security guards, Police, prosecutors, and courts in Sweden.
The evidence is in the overpopulated Swedish prisons, jails and detention centers which are filled with inmates of an immigrant background. At the Ystad, Skåne remand prison, where I was interned in January of 2023, every single one of the four cell-blocks set aside for males in the wing of the facility I was placed at was filled with inmates of an immigrant background (mostly Arabic / Middle Eastern). In the cell block that I was interned there was only ONE white Swedish citizen.
The racism of the Swedish State is demonstrated by the attitude it takes towards immigrants who have lived long term in Sweden and then are summarily deported. I have lived in Sweden since June 2001, for example. A young man from El Salvador who is a fellow inmate in this facility at present has been in Sweden ten years. Another inmate from Albania (deported last week), 13 years. A case that illustrates the brutal and inhuman face of Swedish immigration policy is that of Chancelvie Lelo, 22 years old. She came to Sweden as a child and came of age here, she was established in Halmstad after eleven years in Sweden. Nevertheless, she was brutally deported. I relate to her case because I was taken out of the country I was born into as a child of two. Sweden does not care one bit about the human rights of those of us who had no control over immigration decisions in our childhood. Too add insult to injury, Chancelvie Lelo did not have her case or deportation legally tested.
Given the Chancelvie Lelo case, Sweden has not an ounce of standing to charge that in Socialist Vietnam "Human rights defenders, journalists and other media actors are regularly arrested and sentenced on arbitrary grounds"; because in "democratic" Sweden immigrants of color and others are regularly harassed, arrested and deported on arbitrary racist grounds. And if they cannot be deported because they have a passport, they are thrown into prison under the "flight risk" loophole.
(2) The Swedish Foreign Ministry claims about the Socialist Republic of Vietnam: "The media is state-controlled and self-censorship is common. Internet use is widespread, but the network is controlled and filtered with the support of law."
Article 18 of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights: "Everyone has the right to freedom of thought, conscience and religion; this right includes freedom to change his religion or belief, and freedom..."
American dissident Noam Chomsky once commented about media in the United States: "The smart way to keep people passive and obedient is to strictly limit the spectrum of acceptable opinion but allow very lively debate within that spectrum." This comment aptly applies to Sweden as well as the United States. Take for example the recent parliamentary elections in 2022; disproportionate time and attention was given by the Swedish establishment media to supporters of the racist Swedish Democrat party while radical critics of detention as well as anti-deportation refuseniks and No Human is Illegal activists were ignored. I say this with great indignation, because between April 2014 and August 2018 I was organized with a Christian anti-deportation activist network taking direct action to obstruct detention and deportation of vulnerable asylum seekers.
I take pride in the fact that during those four years I, in collaboration with a group of anonymous others, helped prevent the deportation of nine persons, including three ethnic Afghan young men who were going to be deported to a war zone they did not come from and two converts from Islam to Christianity who were threatened with deportation to situations where their lives were at risk because of their so-called "apostasy". I made the church cabin I lived at in Hammarö, Värmland available to hide vulnerable people wanted for deportation from Sweden by the Border Police. For four years the church cabin I live at became a station in the underground railroad out of Sweden for vulnerable asylum seekers.
The expression of radical and fundamental oppositional criticism against racist immigration laws, xenophobic practices and repressive Police abuses against persons of an immigrant background are systematically filtered out of the Swedish establishment media. Swedish Authorities do not respect Article 18 of the declaration of Human Rights when it comes to Muslim converts to Christianity. Muslim converts to Christianity in Sweden are mechanically deported to North African and Middle Eastern countries where they face violent reprisal and even the death penalty for "apostasy". The Swedish State claims that these people do not need protection because they could just "fake it and be closeted"; again, disregarding the clear language of Article 18 "...and freedom, either alone or in community with others and in public or private, to manifest his religion or belief in teaching, practice, worship and observance." Swedish Authorities do not acknowledge the input of pastors and clergy from Equmeniakyrkan, Svenska Kyrkan, Evangeliska Frikyrkan and Pingstkyrkan who certify to the genuine nature of the conversions. People have testified that during the asylum interviews Muslim converts to Christianity are aggressively interrogated about complex details of Christian theology and verbally tricked so as to find reason to portray them as "false converts" and deny their asylum claims. To add insult to injury these people are sometimes deported to countries they did not come from. In January 2018 Migrationsverket ruled that Equmeniakyrkan and Pingstkyrkan were "sects" (!); so as to invalidate all conversions to these denominations.
(3) The Swedish Foreign Ministry claims about the Socialist Republic of Vietnam: "Trials do not live up to international standards. Detention periods are often long and in sensitive cases, such as for crimes against national security, can be for an indefinite period. The courts are under the influence of the Communist Party"
When I read this, I could not help but react in anger. In Sweden the court system is rigged against immigrants, again the fact is proven by the over representation of persons of an immigrant background (especially those of color) in Swedish prisons, jails and detention centers. Swedish courts are under the influence of racist supporters of the Swedish Democrat party who hold positions in the judiciary, thus making the Swedish courts in-hospitable to immigrant defendants. The only "oasis" of justice for immigrants was the court that heard appeals to release people from immigrant detention, but that "oasis" is not there anymore.
There are people who have been interned at the detention centers in Märsta and here at Åstorp who have been detained for more than the one-year limit. Allegedly people only stay detained for "two months", but that is a lie. People are simply re-arrested. Long detention periods are a form of torture, especially when the person is not guilty of a crime.
It is for this reason that inmates escaped from the Åstorp detention facility a month ago and before that in August of 2022: https://www.aftonbladet.se/nyheter/a/KnG5l6/hal-i-vaggen-tre-rymde-fran-forvar. I maintain that the three young men who recently escaped were justified in having taken drastic measures to ensure their integrity, security and to protect their lives.
I was fortunate that the "oasis" appeals tribunal I mentioned released me from immigrant detention in January 2020; but my fiancée Yusuf was not as lucky. He was railroaded by the Swedish Border Police seven years before. In the summer of 2013 Yusuf and I decided to get married. Tentatively in March of 2014. I was going to ask the Pastor at Lövnäskyrkan Församling in Hammarö, Värmland if she would perform the ceremony since the Församling had a history of being friendly to LGBTQi people. Lövnäskyrkan was one of the first congregations in Sweden to have an openly Lesbian pastor in the year 2000. To make a story short, Yusuf was abducted by the Swedish Border Police in September of 2013. He was simply whisked away when I was not present, and I was denied information about his whereabouts. From the detention (I think it was Kållered), he emailed me that he was being deported to Tchad, a country he was not from. That is the last time I ever heard of him. In February of 2014 I received an email from a relative of his in Morocco that Yusuf had committed suicide. I wrote an angry email to Migrationsverket complaining about what had happened to Yusuf after he was abducted. Migrationsverket responded that "they do not take responsibility for what happens to individuals after they are removed from Sweden/Schengen by the border police (Granspolisen)". This is the cold blooded and bureaucratic face of "democratic" Sweden, the Swedish Foreign Ministry has no standing to criticize Socialist Vietnam given the record of systematic abuse and insults immigrants are subjected to in Sweden on a daily basis, especially if they are persons of color or gay.
2012 and 2013 were the black years for gay immigrants in Sweden. Many gay immigrants were in hiding. It was in that era that a Transexual woman and her partner were deported back to Russia, despite the fact that they would face violence and abuse there. Their case received coverage in the media, and they had the support of the RFSL, and still they were deported. The Trans woman (Lita) went into hiding but was found and then removed. Yusuf was one of the victims of those black years, although he was one of the many Gay people from African and Middle Eastern countries who were disappeared by the Border Police in that era but whose cases were not publicized. Note the hypocrisy of Sweden when the Foreign Ministry denounces Putin's Russia today but had no objection to deporting persecuted gays and trans people back to Putin's jurisdiction in 2012-2013.
II.
[THIS SECTION WAS DELETED FOR RESONS OF CONFIDENTIALITY]
III.
In conclusion: I want to state that I believe I am in danger of retaliation from the Swedish State and the United States Government. I believe that I have a well-grounded fear that I am at risk of retaliatory abuse, retaliatory violence, rendition and/or other serious harm; specially in times of Swedish integration into the North Atlantic Treaty Organization.
It is for this reason that I seek political asylum with the Socialist Republic of Vietnam.
Thank you for your kind attention,
Jaime Varela Torres
"Miguel Angel Toores"
tel: 073****603
epost: ****@tutanota.com
Ce qu'il y a de certain c'est que moi, je ne suis pas Marxiste
// Karl Marx
____
Reference:
(1) The official perspective on Socialist Vietnam from The Swedish State:
(2) (http://lovnaskyrkan.com/)
(3) https://www.thepinknews.com/2012/05/09/sweden-trans-woman-in-hiding-to-escape-deportation-to-russia/
(4) https://www.thepinknews.com/2012/07/17/sweden-trans-asylum-seekers-partner-to-be-deported-to-russia/
