A third member of a Belarusian family has been told to leave Sweden by September 3 after a relative was arrested in Belarus following his deportation after being denied political asylum.
Family members told RFE/RL's Belarus Service on August 28 that the man, along with his mother, was deported on August 21. The detained man's sister, meanwhile, is scheduled to be deported to Belarus by next week.
The family arrived in Sweden in 2022 saying a probe had been launched in Belarus against them over their participation in mass protests in 2020 against the official results of a presidential election that handed victory to authoritarian ruler Alyaksandr Lukashenka amid opposition claims the vote was rigged.
The father of the family died in a Belarusian prison, the relatives said, asking that their family name not be published. All of them had taken part in anti-Lukashenka rallies in Belarus that lasted for months after the election, they said.
After the father was arrested in fall of 2022, the mother and son fled Belarus for Sweden using Italian visas. The daughter joined them afterward, with all three requesting political asylum in Sweden.
The father had been sentenced to three years in prison on charges of insulting Lukashenka, inciting hatred, and organizing mass unrest. RFE/RL obtained documents confirming the man's death in Belarusian custody in August 2023.
The daughter told RFE/RL that the Swedish authorities were reluctant to consider their applications for asylum because they entered Sweden on Italian visas. The woman said her mother and brother were sent to Belarus via Lithuania.
"They deported them by plane. Mom said it all was carried out with violence against them. My brother resisted a little; my mother was handcuffed -- like some sort of murderer," the woman said.
According to her, Lithuanian officials then brought her mother and brother to the neutral zone along the Lithuanian-Belarusian border. The brother was then arrested on unspecified charges, while the mother was allowed to travel on to Minsk.
Her brother's exact whereabouts and the exact charges he faces remain unknown.
Swedish human rights defender Martin Ugla told RFE/RL that his country's legislation regarding political asylum is very complex, and while the case is "outrageous, it's not a surprise."
"The fact is that in order to get asylum in Sweden, you need to prove very clearly that you are in danger of being detained at home. And it is difficult, including in cases concerning Belarus. We know what is happening there, but it is very difficult to prove that it is you who will be detained," Ugla said.
According to the Swedish human rights defender, after 2020, only about 3 percent of Belarusians who applied for asylum in Sweden received it. The rest were forced to look for other ways of legalization or ask for asylum in other countries.