Kurdish activists branded as "security threat," will be deported: Swedish media

Kurdish activists branded as "security threat," will be deported: Swedish media
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Update: 20 August 2022 01:14
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A Swedish newspaper has reported that Zinar Bozkurt, one of many Kurds in a similar situation, was denied asylum on the Swedish Security Service's advice, and he is to be deported soon.

A young Kurd whose asylum application was rejected about a year ago recently said to Swedish media that he has been told by authorities that he will be deported.

Zinar Bozkurt, a Turkish citizen, is one of at least 40 Kurds in a similar situation, according to a report by Swedish newspaper Dagens ETC.

Bozkurt told Dagens ETC about the process following his asylum application in 2016, saying that the investigation regarding the application was launched in 2018.

He said:

"SAPO [the Swedish Security Service] took me in for a conversation and showed me pictures from my Facebook account, taken when I participated in demonstrations in Sweden. They asked why I sympathize with the HDP [pro-Kurdish Peoples' Democratic Party in Turkey], and said that I had held a flag of the PKK [Kurdistan Workers' Party]."

In 2020, SAPO decided that Bozkurt is a security threat to Sweden.

In March, the border police sent a letter telling him to call them immediately concerning the process of deportation, and that an arrest warrant would be issued otherwise.

The asylum or permanent residence applications of many Kurds have been rejected by the Swedish Migration Agency, who decided on deportation in several cases, entirely on the advice of the Swedish Security Service (SAPO), Dagens ETC said.

SAPO reportedly has been branding Kurdish political activists as "threat to Swedish society" despite the fact that none of the accused are suspect of any criminal offense in Sweden, and access to any alleged evidence is not allowed.

What the rejected Kurds have in common is that they are all sympathizers of the pro-Kurdish political movement in Turkey that is in conflict with the current administration.

Bozkurt, who is convinced that he risks imprisonment if he returns to Turkey, told Joakim Medin of Dagens ETC:

"I am very stressed and have not gone out for over six months. I keep thinking that they can arrest me, that some SAPO officers can come in civilian clothes, put me in a car and drive me to a detention center."

He added: "Sometimes I think I’m going to jump off a bridge and die instantly."