ASTRA learned the details of the deportation of Belarusian mother and son from Sweden. The father of the family had previously died in a Belarusian prison
Earlier it became known about the deportation of a mother and son from Sweden after being refused political asylum. They came to the country 2 years ago — both took part in peaceful protests in Belarus in 2020.
As Olga Rogachevsky, a Russian woman who was detained with Natalia [name changed] in the deportation prison, told ASTRA, almost the entire family — Natalia herself, her husband, son and daughter — went out to protest against the Lukashenko regime in 2020. They were identified by cameras. When the security forces came for Natalia’s husband in 2022, they realized that they needed to leave immediately.
As a result, Natalia, along with her adult daughter and son, left for Sweden via Poland. For some time they lived in a church in the north of the country and continued to prove their right to apply for asylum. Natalia’s husband died in the hands of the security forces at that time.
In May, Natalia and her son were arrested and placed in a Swedish deportation prison.
“She looks like a pre-trial detention center. Here you live in a room with neighbors, you have a common meal, 1 hour walk a day, you can’t go anywhere, you are under cameras, you go to any meeting under escort — 2 people at minimum,” Olga said.
From May to August, there was more and more evidence that refugees were facing imprisonment at home — Natalia’s other daughter, who remained in Belarus, who did not participate in the rallies, reported that they were receiving summonses for interrogations. The Swedish Migration Service was aware that Natalia’s husband had already been killed in prison and that they had also been charged and were being searched for.
As a result, on August 21, the woman and her son were handcuffed, put on a plane and thrown out in a neutral zone on the border of Lithuania and Belarus. “Someone drove by, took them, and her son was immediately detained at the border,” Olga says. According to her, there is no connection with the woman now and no information about her.
“Her tragedy was that her son has a criminal record and they will take him right at the border. She said this to all employees of the migration service, lawyers, human rights defenders. Now I think noone can guarantee that he is alive,” the interlocutor added.
Natalia’s daughter is ordered to leave Sweden before September 3. As Olga notes, after the change of migration policy in Sweden, the relevant services simply refuse to consider the evidence provided for asylum.
