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IMMIGRATION

Euro court warns Sweden over Iran deportation

The European Court of Human Rights has told Sweden that it will breach its humanitarian obligations if it deports an Iranian asylum seeker, saying his claims of past torture appeared to be true.

The man, identified as R.C., filed a request for asylum two years after arriving in Sweden in 2003.

But Swedish authorities doubted his claims of torture and his escape from a packed revolutionary court in Iran, saying such tribunals were not open to the public. They also decided to turn down his asylum request.

A case was then filed at the European rights court in 2007 and declared admissible a year later. The tribunal also ordered Sweden to stay his deportation until further notice.

The judges on Tuesday ruled that the man’s “basic story had been consistent

throughout the proceedings,” and that despite some “uncertain aspects … its

overall credibility had not been undermined.”

The man, who said he took part in an anti-government protest in 2001 after which he was arrested, tortured and detained for almost two years before he managed to escape, risked renewed torture if he was deported, the court ruled.

“The Court also accepted the general conclusions of the medical report that the marks of injuries found on R.C.’s body could have originated from torture,” a statement said.

The judges also noted that “several organisations reporting on the situation in Iran noted an increase in human rights violations in Iran after the 2009 elections, including excessive police force, arbitrary arrests, killings, ill-treatment of detainees and the use of torture to obtain confessions.”

They said the man would likely be “detained and ill-treated” if he was sent back.

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IMMIGRATION

France ‘will not welcome migrants’ from Lampedusa: interior minister

France "will not welcome migrants" from the island, Gérald Darmanin has insisted

France 'will not welcome migrants' from Lampedusa: interior minister

France will not welcome any migrants coming from Italy’s Lampedusa, interior minister Gérald Darmanin has said after the Mediterranean island saw record numbers of arrivals.

Some 8,500 people arrived on Lampedusa on 199 boats between Monday and Wednesday last week, according to the UN’s International Organisation for
Migration, prompting European Commission president Ursula von der Leyen to travel there Sunday to announce an emergency action plan.

According to Darmanin, Paris told Italy it was “ready to help them return people to countries with which we have good diplomatic relations”, giving the
example of Ivory Coast and Senegal.

But France “will not welcome migrants” from the island, he said, speaking on French television on Tuesday evening.

Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni has called on Italy’s EU partners to share more of the responsibility.

The recent arrivals on Lampedusa equal more than the whole population of the tiny Italian island.

The mass movement has stoked the immigration debate in France, where political parties in the country’s hung parliament are wrangling over a draft law governing new arrivals.

France is expected to face a call from Pope Francis for greater tolerance towards migrants later this week during a high-profile visit to Mediterranean city Marseille, where the pontiff will meet President Emmanuel Macron and celebrate mass before tens of thousands in a stadium.

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