Sweden refused asylum to a Russian political emigrant. Now he is sailing to Ireland by boat with only a university diploma from his documents
Stanislav Brysin left for Sweden 5 years ago, in June 2019, and requested political asylum. In 2021, he was refused and required to leave the country. In Russia, Stanislav was a coordinator of protest actions in 2011-2013, an election observer, a speaker at protest events, and with the beginning of the Russian invasion organized the first anti-war rallies in Stockholm and helped Ukrainian refugees. In 2023, after all the appeals and refusals to obtain asylum, Stanislav bought a sailing yacht, since the plane was unavailable to him, and planned to go to the United States. Three days before the start of the trip, the man was checked by the Coast Guards and was sent to a deportation center. Brysin spent 7 months in prison for illegal migrants.
“I was released at the end of January 2024, just kicked out into the street, obliged to report to the police once a week and solve my problems on my own,” he told ASTRA.
Three days after Stanislav’s release from prison, it became known that a criminal case had been opened against him in Russia on “calls to terrorism” because of anti-war videos on VKontakte. The man sent the documents confirming this to the migration center with a request to cancel the deportation, but was still refused.
“Grounds for refusal: even if a criminal case is opened against you in Russia, this does not mean that you were convicted there, that is, you do not need protection. Which is completely contrary to international and Swedish law,” he says.
“Today I’m launching the boat and getting ready for attempt number 2. I plan to go to Ireland. I don’t know if I’ll get there or not, because I have only have any documents,” he said in a video on his YouTube channel.
Olga Rogachevsky, a Russian woman, is in a similar situation, she also left Russia for political reasons after the invasion of Ukraine began and ended up in a deportation prison. Olga and her husband (pictured) have five children. According to her, the staff of the migration committee examined her case using outdated documents. And after she decided to sue them, “they decided to take revenge on her.”
“On August 1, I was arrested, my children were taken away and they said that I was trying to hide. Although I was at exactly the address where I was supposed to be. At the same time, the decision on deportation has been stopped. I had a Swedish Schengen visa, I am still an asylum seeker, I have a legal status. I am in a frozen deportation. When children are taken away from you, it is extremely rare for people to have the energy to withstand it. They don’t sleep, they don’t eat, they just cry – and eventually agree to leave the country. There are no concepts of “torture” in Swedish law, but there is torture,” she told ASTRA.
Earlier, Sweden deported a woman and her son from Belarus, against whom a criminal case was opened in their homeland. The father of the family died in a Belarusian prison a year ago. As a result, the son was detained while crossing the border and there is no connection with his mother.
