Thousands protest against expulsion of 3-year-old from Sweden
The boy was taken care of by Swedish social services only 11 days old and has lived with the same foster family in Österlen, Skåne since the age of four months, who Today’s news be the first to report. His mother has since been deported to her native Nigeria and the boy’s father is unknown.
According to Swedish courts, the boy’s biological mother can not take care of him, but they also believe that he has a family in Nigeria who can take care of him.
His foster parents have questioned the decision to deport the child to a country he has never been to when he spent almost his entire life as part of their family.
“If he is expelled, he risks ending up in an orphanage, in a country he has never been to, among people he does not know. How can this be compared to [being part of] a family in Sweden? He is our family member “, said the boy’s foster mother Kvällposten.
The Swedish Migration Agency and the Migration Court have denied the three-year-old a Swedish residence permit, and the Migration Court of Appeal has rejected an appeal.
“He is like all other three-year-olds, he challenges us, likes to play with his siblings – a wonderful kid who learns very quickly,” says the foster mother.
Following the decision, the family has worked with children’s rights organizations to raise awareness of the case, and more than 130,000 people have signed up. a petition demands that the expulsion order be revoked.
Sweden has previously revoked decisions to deport children, including in the case of a six-year legal orphan who lived with their grandparents in Sweden. In that case, the agency acknowledged that it had acted “too quickly” in its initial decision. And a two-year-old girl who lives in a foster home in Skåne got one expulsion order 2012, but three years later received a permanent residence permit in Sweden and was allowed to stay.