17/12/2010 President
Strasbourg, 17.12.2010 – Council of Europe Parliamentary Assembly (PACE) President , Mevlüt Çavusoglu, expressed alarm that, on 15 December, Sweden forcibly returned around 20 Iraqi refugees to Iraq, including Christians who are currently the victims of particular persecution in this country.
“I am concerned since this is not the first time that Sweden has forcibly sent back refugees to Iraq.
This has occurred notwithstanding the unequivocal position of UNHCR: all countries should refrain from deporting Iraqis who originate from the most perilous parts of the country. Some of the refugees sent back originate precisely from those regions.
This happens notwithstanding that the European Court of Human Rights is currently inundated with Rule 39 requests from Iraqis in Sweden, and has accepted many of those requests,” he said.
PACE President urged Sweden to consider fully UNHCR’s advice and to allow the Court time to carry out its work. “It might transpire that requests of some of the returnees have not yet been dealt with by the Court,” he concluded.