UN Finds Sweden Violated Disabled Child's Rights in Double Deportation

(MENAFN) Sweden unlawfully deported a severely disabled Albanian child to a country where his life-sustaining medical care was out of reach — not once, but twice — the UN Human Rights Committee ruled Monday, in a landmark decision exposing critical failures in the country's asylum system.

The Geneva-based rights body determined that Stockholm had breached the child's right to life and violated international prohibitions against torture and cruel, inhuman, or degrading treatment.

At the center of the case is E.B., an Albanian minor living with a constellation of debilitating conditions — autism, cerebral palsy, hydrocephalus, and epilepsy. Swedish authorities expelled him alongside his family in 2016, and again in 2019, following two failed asylum bids.

The committee's vice chair, Wafaa Bassim, delivered a sharp rebuke of Sweden's conduct, stating: "Before deporting a child with severe and complex disabilities, and life-threatening health conditions, States must carry out a rigorous, individualised assessment and ensure that essential treatment and medication will in fact be accessible and available in the receiving country."

Investigators found that Swedish officials had dismissed crucial medical documentation confirming E.B.'s dependence on treatments that simply do not exist within Albania's healthcare infrastructure.

Bassim reinforced the gravity of the case: "In a case as serious as E.B.'s, States must do more than conduct standard reviews."

With E.B. now facing a third removal order, the UN Human Rights Committee is pressing Sweden to reassess his asylum and residency applications in accordance with the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights, and to provide him with appropriate compensation.

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