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The UN Human Rights Committee said on Monday that Sweden had violated the right to life of a child with severe disabilities by deporting him twice to Albania.
The committee reviewed a complaint referring to E. B., an Albanian now aged 21, who was diagnosed with autism, grave mental developmental disorder, spastic diplegic cerebral palsy, hydrocephalus and epilepsy.
He and his family arrived in Sweden in 2012 seeking protection and medical care but after years of unsuccessful asylum applications and appeals, they were deported to Albania in 2016, when he was 10.
The family had quickly returned to Sweden without legal status to ensure E.B.’s treatment and saw repeated applications for residency permits rejected before being expelled again in 2019, when he was 14, the committee decision showed.
“Before deporting a child with severe and complex disabilities and life-threatening health conditions, states must carry out a rigorous, individualised assessment and ensure that essential treatment and medication will in fact be accessible and available in the receiving country,” Wafaa Bassim, the committee’s vice chair, said in a statement.
In its decision, dated 30 March, the committee said countries must not “extradite, deport, expel or otherwise remove a person from their territory when there were substantial grounds for believing that there was a real risk of irreparable harm” in the destination country.
“The committee found that, by failing to verify that E.B. would in fact have access to essential medication and medical care in Albania before deporting him, Swedish authorities exposed him to a real risk of irreparable harm, violating his right to life and his right to be free from torture or cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment,” it said in the statement.
E. B. told the committee he had returned to Sweden yet again, but was facing a new removal order.
The committee asked Stockholm to review his applications for asylum or residence permits, and to provide him with adequate compensation.
The committee, a body of 18 independent experts, monitors implementation of the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights by its state parties and conducts regular country reviews.
It has no power to compel states to follow its rulings but its decisions carry reputational weight.
Additional sources • AFP