Swedish airline passenger stops deportation of Afghan refugee

Translated from Dutch site Joop.nl today:

Female aircraft passenger prevents deportation of man to Afghanistan

A young Swedish woman has been able to prevent the deportation of a 52-year-old man to Afghanistan with a both courageous and simple action. She was on board a passenger plane ready to depart from Gothenburg to Istanbul. Among the passengers was also a man who was to be expelled by the Swedish immigration service to Afghanistan. Elin Ersson did not want to accept that cruelty. “In Afghanistan, it’s war and this man is going to die.” She stood in the aisle and started a Facebook live stream that was followed by large numbers of people soon.

Elin films herself because she wants to respect the privacy of the other passengers. She tells that she does nothing illegal, but she will stay in the aisle until the man will be taken off the plane. She does not want anyone to be sent to hell, she says. “As long as I stand here, the plane can not leave. I hope other passengers will follow my example.”

In the plane, tension arises. A Brit starts to barrack her and says she is frightening children. She answers that man’s life is now more important. The Brit takes away her phone but that theft is undone by a steward who returns her phone. She is also constantly ordered to turn off her device, but Elin knows that the live stream is her rescue. She has a picture of a boy who would initially be deported, but it turns out that he was replaced by the 52-year-old man.

At 7:30 a Turkish man declares himself to be in solidarity with her. Elin sheds tears of joy. Applause sounds. A little later, a football team follows her example. And after that more people stand up.

Eventually, the Afghan is taken off the plane. Elin follows him. A while later, she reports that the deportation has been canceled. She does not know more.

Ms Ersson is a 22-year-old student.

She did this after pro-refugee actions by German pilots and Israeli pilots. One should hope Swedish police will not arrest her for her courageous humanitarianism.

Elin deserves the Nobel Peace Prize far more than others awarded that prize.

The president of the USA should invite Ms Ersson to the White House and present her with the Medal of Freedom, which she deserves so far more than other awardees of that medal … oh, wait a minute, the president of the USA is Donald Trump, who has refugees from bloody wars deported still more cruelly.

Swedish student who stopped Afghan asylum seeker’s deportation by refusing to sit down on plane could face prison: here.

A video of a student in Sweden halting the deportation of an Afghan man has gone viral, having been viewed by more than two million people. It reveals a broad wave of revulsion at the treatment of refugees: here.

Dutch deportation of child, parents to Afghan war: here.

The trial opened in Chelmsford, Essex on October 1 of 15 anti-deportation activists accused of terrorism offences for preventing the departure of an immigration removal charter flight from London Stansted Airport. The Socialist Equality Party demands the immediate release of the Stansted 15 and the dropping of all charges against them. A hundred supporters of the “Stansted 15” gathered outside Chelmsford Crown Court displaying banners reading, “Stand up for human rights defenders” and “Drop the charges.” Appealing for international unity, the crowd sang, “Break ’em all down, break ’em all down, these walls between us.” The activists, belonging to campaign group “End Deportations”, had locked themselves around a government-chartered Boeing 767 on the night of March 28, 2017, to prevent take-off. Aboard were 57 undocumented migrants from detention centres awaiting forced removal to Nigeria, Ghana and Sierra Leone here.

FIFTEEN protesters who locked themselves around a plane at Stansted Airport, successfully stopping those aboard from being deported back to countries where they faced torture or death, have been convicted of ‘terrorism offences’: here.