Mahmoud was one of the unaccompanied flyktingungdomar that came in 2015. In december 2016, he was baptized in the pentecostal church in Jönköping after teaching and dopförberedelse. He was a frequent participant in the språkkaféer, in a basic course in the christian faith and he attended regularly at the church service. He was open and clear with his faith and was in the assembly network for converts. But the migration board did not his christian faith as genuine and considered that his conversion was not a valid grounds for asylum. It was not considered to be associated with some risks if he returned to Afghanistan. After a fourth rejection of his application for asylum, could he not live longer. Mahmoud recently took his life.
To convert to a different trosövertygelse is a complex and extensive process which requires thought and reflection. This process is jointly developed guidelines. Last year, the Swedish christian council, an open letter to the Swedish migration board regarding, the work’s handling of cases in which asylum seekers entered the conversion to the christian faith as grounds for asylum. The media had drawn attention to the remarkable knowledge as the officer asked. The christian council of sweden, demanded three actions: the Swedish migration board approved the business through a major study of how investigations of the conversion, to administrators and decision-makers fortbildades of religion and belief, and that experts with particular expertise in the religion, was the research services.
In June, arranged the work, and the christian council of Sweden shared a study day for practitioners, policy makers and managers. Moreover, the Swedish migration board a brief evaluation of the more than 20 konversionsärenden. It was found that in two cases been less appropriate questions, which, however, was not considered to give rise to any special measures. The proposal of experts with expertise in the religion of the units was rejected.
Also the certificate from the religiously experienced and theologically trained people who met, taught, and learned to know konvertiten for several months, and sometimes years, is light compared with the conclusion reached by the Swedish Migration board’s officer after an interview of only a couple of hours.
Despite this, the situation is still very serious. Almost daily we get a signal from the local congregations that there have not been any changes in the Migration board’s handling of these cases. After the reading of the minutes, decisions and reporting in the media is our conclusion that the problems are greater than what the Swedish Migration board’s evaluation showed.
the staff of the Authority has until now managed konversionsärenden on the basis of a judicial position from 2012 based on a judgment of the migration court of Appeal in 2011. A lot has happened in this area since then, including research-based knowledge about the conversion. Last Thursday, as the Swedish Migration board’s new position that gives better opportunities for making decisions. However, we see several areas where improvements are still needed. We want to point out systematic deficiencies in three areas:
In multi-protocol, it seems as if the Swedish migration board has a view on religion as something you choose in a comparison between the different options. So it can be sometimes. But the sociology of religion research shows that what draws people to the christian faith and christian congregations more often is relationships. Religious belief is a complex phenomenon of inner conviction and visible practice. It is expressed in the rites and is manifested in the community. It is not uncommon that the practice precedes the intellectual reflection on faith and the content of the gudsupplevelsen. The research also shows that religion primarily is something that is lived with the traditions and customs that are practiced in everyday life and not limited to private beliefs.
When the Migration officer focuses descriptions of the converted tanks in the process to embrace a different faith, aside from the current knowledge of the conversions. But not only that, you also require to konvertiten to do something that they maybe never done in the past; reflect intellectually and in terms of knowledge of their changing religious practices and affiliations.
Priests and pastorers certificate of baptism, teaching and församlingsengagemang is said in many of the Swedish Migration board’s decision be given ”some significance”. But even well-formed certificate from the religiously experienced and theologically trained people who met, taught, and learned to know konvertiten for several months, and sometimes years, is light compared with the conclusion reached by the Swedish Migration board’s officer after an interview of only a couple of hours.
Most of the swedes today have a limited knowledge about and personal experience of religion. Reasonably, this also applies to many of the Migration officer. The trade-off between the value and the claims handler’s conclusions after the interview is problematic.
Christian people living in the vulnerability and persecution in many places in our world, which also applies in several of the countries that the asylum seeker has left. It is now several years since the Swedish migration board stated that no one who is expelled shall have to hide a religious belief. A christian convert who is deported to Afghanistan or Iran and who want to live according to their beliefs run the undoubted risk of persecution. Strictly speaking, it is not conversion to the christian faith who create this threat, but the fact that konvertiten have left islam and become what is called an apostat.
In many decisions stated that the asylum seeker has not been able to make it likely that information about his conversion become known in their home country and therefore, it is dangerous for konvertiten to return there. The Swedish migration board seem to think that the images and texts on social media does not reach out to relatives or authorities in the home country, which is an unreasonable stance in today’s digitized world. The focus of the treatment needs to be directed towards the threat and a possible need for protection. We require:
• Take into account current research in the application of the new legal position.
• Allow the assessment of the threat against the konvertiten and his protection to be more involved in the investigations.
• Let genuinitetsbedömningen to a lesser extent relate to the reflections at the transition to a different faith and give more weight to the konvertiters documents and activity at the time when the decision is made.
