Ghader Ghalamere with his son – Image, www.theweek.co.uk

Sweden has had no choice but to give a Kurdish Asylum Seeker a temporary reprieve after the Swedish Government had rejected his application and bundled him on to a flight for return to Iran. Passengers came to his aid when they refused to fasten their seatbelts, preventing the flight from taking off. These acts of conscientious objection could have led to criminal charges but this was a risk these citizens took.

Ghader Ghalamere fled the prospect of persecution some years ago, and finished up in Sweden where he now has a young family – two young kids and married to Fatemah, a Swedish resident. By all means he is entitled to Swedish residency through a family qualification but in near lunatic bureaucratic bungle he is required to apply for the residency from outside Sweden. Red tape that can surely be addressed, but for now it’s rocket science for the Swedish authorities, who not only were trying to bundle him out of the country on an immigration glitch but back to the country he  fled from for fear of persecution.

He was bundled on a flight at Ostersund for Stockholm and then onwards for Tehran. His family and friends turned up to Ostersund airport and spoke to passengers on the same flight while in the airport lounge.

Mr Ghalamere had first fled by heading to Turkey. There he met Fatemeh. The UNHCR granted him refugee status. He waited five years in Turkey before making his way to Sweden.

Independent UK journalist Adam Withnall reported that some of the passengers were “clearly moved” and “once on board the plane the other passengers refused to fasten their seat belts – a protest that prevented the pilots from being able to begin take off.”

“With the flight unable to go ahead as scheduled, Mr Ghalamere was removed and taken to a migrant detention centre in Gävle, central Sweden – but the country’s migration board insists nothing about his situation has changed,” reported Mr Withnall.

“It’s enough now,” said Sanna Vestin, chair of the Swedish Network of Refugee Support Groups (FARR). “No one who sees the family can doubt that it would harm the children if their father were to be expelled.”

Mr Ghalamere had contacted Ms Vestin more than a year ago when as Mr Withnall reports “police had asked Mr Ghalamere to travel to Norway to make his application for a Swedish passport from there.”

He did that but after two weeks in Norway, the application had not been successful. He returned to Sweden but Mr Withnall wrote “upon his arrival the family was told his trip had proven the children could survive in his absence, and the Migration Board ordered his deportation.”

What a disgrace if not connivance.

Mr Withnall reports that Mr Ghalamere is on a hunger strike while Swedish refugee groups protest and his plight can be followed on Facebook – stoppa utvisningen av ghader

Just over two years ago, in December 2011, another inspiring action of conscientious objection took place at Perth Airport. A Tamil gentleman, Emil, who had fled Sri Lanka fearing persecution was to be deported back to his worst fears. Whilst a Federal Court in Sydney was hearing a last minute please to review the case, Immigration authorities tried to bundle him into a vehicle from Perth Airport Detention Centre and onwards to the International terminal.

Supporters from the Perth Refugees Rights Action Network, led by Alexis Vasilley, had kept a vigil outside the Detention Centre for Emil and for another gentleman, Vithuran, who was also due to be deported within days, outside the Detention Centre. When they saw SERCO personnel attempt to bundle a gentleman who they thought was Emil into the vehicle six of the supporters surrounded the vehicle. It turned out that the gentleman was indeed Vithuran who Immigration surely thought they could deport before an appeal was brought on for him too.

Supporters who were at risk of being arrested and charged were able to force Immigration to abort the deportation.

Three other Tamil gentlemen had spent not only three years in Australian detention but also one year in prison on the presumption they may have skippered the boat from Sri Lanka to Christmas Island – a 27 day odyssey. One tried to commit suicide, and hunger strikes were their relief from the morass of abuses. It took various conscientious objections on my part and an unrelenting campaign by me with various authorities to have them released. They are now Australian citizens.

The actions of passengers to stop a plane from taking off and the actions of those who blockaded a vehicle from leaving demonstrate  what we need more of. My actions, despite the repercussions I endured, also demonstrate what people with influence can do  – unless one does not believe in the right of others to transmigrate in the striving to be safe then there are few excuses about what we can do to make a difference and save lives.