Photo via christiansofiraq.com

150 christians of Iraq face deportation in Sweden

150 Iraqi Christians have sought refuge in the Cathedral of St. Enechubeng to ask the immigration authorities to reconsider the decisions to refuse their asylum applications in Sweden, reports Christians of Iraq. They recently organized themselves and began to campaign for review of decisions by the immigration authorities against them. More than 150 of them who are threatened with deportation from Sweden gathered at the Cathedral of Linköping, to ask the Church of Sweden to help deliver their message to the politicians and stave off their being deported.

Schumer Bazi says: We organized ourselves and we have asked the church in Linköping for assistance in organizing our meetings with politicians, we want to explain the difficult conditions in Iraq and here in Sweden. We are More than 150 women and children, elders and men Iraqi Christians whose application for asylum has been rejected. They had and arrived at the Cathedral of Linköping in the hope that the church will help them in their plight, some hoped that it would shield them from deportation.

They told about threats of killing, torture, and kidnapping against them in their homeland which resulted in their fleeing. Some say they came to the cathedral accompanied with their children without fear of arrest from the police before contacting Swedish politicians, to let them know that Swedish immigration authorities did not seriously consider the situation of minorities in Iraq although the numbers of the minorities has shrunk by half since the year two thousand and three.

Munir Daniel Youkhana one of the ten thousand Iraqis are threatened with deportation from Sweden says: Where are the minorities today, where are Iraq's Christians, Mandaeans, Shabak, yazdians? None of them want to return to Iraq. Youkhana adds, the situation is deteriorating day after day, Iraq is divided between the major groups: Kurds, Shiite Muslims and Sunni Muslims, is no longer a place for minorities. The Ministry of Justice in Iraq has reported more than 500 attacks against the churches, and other acts of violence against Christians, but there has been no liability for the criminals, where is the justice in Iraq?

Karen Allison Granbhum Member of Parliament for the Swedish People's Party, who met the protesters at the Cathedral of Enechubeng said she wants to ask the immigration authorities to address the situation of the deportees in the countries they are being sent back to. He also disagreed with Anna Odqvist SPD report about the situation of Christians in Iraq at the present time. Iraqi authorities can not provide protection to the returning Iraqi Christians who have asked for asylum in Sweden.

TAGS: Sweden Iraqi Christians deportation persecution Cathedral of St. Enechubeng asylum

[08/31/2009]

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