Sweden's Migration Agency says it will revise asylum applications filed by Belarusian citizens amid criticism that it had made decisions based on erroneous information and ignored an ongoing crackdown on dissent and democratic institutions in Belarus.
Sveriges Radio quoted Anna Lindblad of the Migration Agency on August 29 as saying "we are aware of the information and criticism directed at us."
Swedish Migration Minister Maria Malmer Stenergard told RFE/RL in a message sent by her press service that the her ministry "will conduct a legal review this autumn regarding the handling of cases from asylum seekers from Belarus."
"I will refrain from further comments on the matter until I have reviewed the results," the minister said.
"Questions regarding the Swedish government’s foreign policy is kindly directed to the Ministry of Foreign Affairs," the minister's response to RFE/RL's query said.
A day earlier, RFE/RL's Belarusian Service reported that a Belarusian man was arrested last week at the Lithuanian-Belarusian border after Swedish authorities rejected his asylum application and deported him to Belarus. His current whereabouts are unknown.
Zmitser Vaserman, who represents a Belarusian group in exile known as the People's Embassy of Belarus, told RFE/RL on August 29 that the Migration Agency's decision to revise Belarusians' asylum applications this autumn was made before the news about the Belarusian man's arrest following his deportation by Sweden broke a day earlier.
According to Vaserman, his group revived its talks with the Migration Agency in July after noted Belarusian opposition activist Kanstantsin Syarohin's asylum application was rejected again.
"[Syarohin's] case confirmed that despite the information on the current situation in Belarus updated in February to properly reflect the reality of mass terror in the country, the Migration Agency continues to support its previously made rulings in courts," Vaserman said.
Vaserman added that it was important that Sweden update the information but stressed that the process of decision-making on asylum applications filed by Belarusian citizens must be held with a moratorium in place on the deportation of Belarusian citizens. This would prevent the deportation of those whose applications have been denied, he said.
Earlier in August, Vaserman said at the New Belarus conference that more than 100 Belarusians applied for political asylum in Sweden and only three received it. Vaserman said then that many filed appeals against denials, while some moved to other countries to seek asylum there.
Following the disputed August 2020 presidential election in Belarus that gave authoritarian ruler Alyaksandr Lukashenka a sixth presidential term, mass pro-democracy demonstrations broke out across the country.
The demonstrations were brutally suppressed. In the ensuing years, officials have imprisoned hundreds of demonstration participants, often holding leading activists in near-complete isolation and denying many prisoners adequate medical care.