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IMMIGRATION

Sweden deported family to wrong country

A family deported to Uzbekistan after Sweden rejected their application for asylum is set to return to Sweden after Uzbek authorities concluded that they were not from the central Asian country.

The family were flown to Uzbekistan in a specially chartered plane on Friday, but are set to arrive back in Halland in western Sweden already on Monday.

“They are not Uzbeks, according to the Uzbek authorities,” said Marianne Paulsson at Halland police to the TT news agency.

The family will now undergo a new investigation into their application for asylum.

The case gained attention after Falkenberg municipal executive board urged the Migration Board (Migrationsverket) to reconsider its decision to deport the family.

But despite the appeal, the deportation was carried out on Friday in a plane carrying a number of other families.

“The Uzbek authorities have conducted a very thorough investigation and concluded that the family are definitely not from Uzbekistan and are not Uzbeks,” Marianne Paulsson said.

Paulsson explained that the identification documents held by the family were fakes and former places of residence given by them have been shown to be fabrications.

The Migration Court has previously ruled that the family is from Uzbekistan although the Migration Board has said that it believes the family could originate from Uzbekistan, Azerbajdzjan, Turkey, Georgia or elsewhere, Paulsson told TT.

The family will be returned to the Migration Board’s reception unit on their return to Sweden.

Deported people return to Sweden from time to time.

The Local reported in December 2010 on the case of a 52-year-old Iranian man after he was sent to neighbouring Iraq by mistake.

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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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