106-year-old Afghan woman denied asylum in Sweden

Soon after she realised her request was denied, her health deteriorated

A 106-year-old Afghan woman who travelled to Europe carried by her son and grandson through perilous mountains, deserts and forests is facing deportation after Sweden rejected her asylum application, reported The Guardian.

Bibihal Uzbeki is severely disabled and can barely speak, her family has appealed against the rejection and she is allowed up to three appeals, a process that could take a very long time. The applications of her family members are also in various stages of appeal.



Their journey first surfaced on the media in 2015 when they were part of a huge influx of people who came to Europe from Syria, Afghanistan, Iraq and other countries.

The Swedish Migration Agency confirmed it has made a decision on the case and said age doesn’t by itself provide grounds for asylum. Uzbeki arrived at the Opatovac refugee camp in Croatia in October 2015 after what she said had been a 20-day journey with her 17 family members to reach Europe, with her 67-year-old son and 19-year-old grandson often carrying her on their backs.

Her rejection letter came during Ramadan. While the family avoided telling her, the constant grief from her granddaughters made her suspicious. “My sisters were crying,” explained 22-year-old Mohammed Uzbeki. “My grandmother asked, ‘Why are you crying?’”

The family states that soon after she realised her request was denied, her health became much worse and she suffered a debilitating stroke as well. The family feels that the Swedish authorities are ignoring the plight of Afghan refugees because they don't consider Afghanistan 'unsafe'.

“The reasoning from the migration agency is that it’s not unsafe enough in Afghanistan,” said Sanna Vestin, the head of the Swedish Network of Refugee Support Groups. But she said many of the big cities cited as safe are not at the moment.



Before their journey to Sweden, the family had been living illegally in Iran for eight years. They left Afghanistan because of an ongoing war and insecurity, but Mohammed Uzbeki said it’s difficult to prove that the family faces a specific enemy if they return.

“If I knew who the enemy was, I would have just avoided them,” he said, citing the Islamic State (IS), Taliban and suicide bombers as possible dangers.