Åke Ericson: Beyond Afghanistan [signed]

International Photo Awards 2020 - 3rd place in the documentary section!

Unaccompanied minors in Sweden: Award-winning photojournalist Åke Ericson exposes the lack of humanity in Swedish refugee policies. ”Over 35.000 of young people who came to Sweden as unaccompanied minor refugees are Led by Fatemeh Kmhavari 17 years, refugees and their supporters have been holding a sit-down strike in Stockholm for over a month, protesting deportations to Afghanistan, and they sleeping outside in the cold over 40 days now demanding that the country stops deportations to Afghanistan.Their claim for asylum has been rejected and many of the minors can be forcibly deported to Afghanistan at anytime. ” BEYOND AFGHANISTAN - The Struggle of the Refugees is a photojournalistic essay about the unaccompanied young refugees who came from Afghanistan and their struggle to create a life for themselves in Sweden. For two-months in the late summer and autumn of 2017 there was a sit-down protest in Stockholm against the deportations from Sweden. Photojournalist Åke Ericson got to know many of those who took part and has since followed their fates through the asylum process.   Some were granted residence, while others who had their applications rejected are now in hiding or have fled to other places in Europe, so as to avoid the forced deportation to Kabul.  Åke Ericson followed the young Afghans in their everyday lives after receiving their deportation orders, on the train while fleeing to France and in the tent-camps under the bridges of Paris. He also met many who are locked-up in the Swedish Migration Agency’s detention centre, where they sit, often for many months, waiting to be deported to Afghanistan. Their individual stories are an important part of the story of a society in change, when humanitarian principles were laid aside while Sweden carried out a dramatic tightening of its refugee policy. --- Swedish: Beyond Afghanistan är en fotografisk essä om de ensamkommande unga flyktingarna från Afghanistan och deras kamp för att skapa sig ett liv i Sverige.  Under två månader sensommaren och hösten 2017 pågår i Stockholm en sittstrejk i protest mot Sveriges utvisningar. Fotojournalisten Åke Ericson lär känna många av de som deltar och har sedan dess följt flera livsöden i asylprocessen.  Några har beviljats uppehållstillstånd medan andra har fått avslag och lever gömda eller har flytt vidare ut i Europa för att slippa tvångsutvisning till Kabul.  Åke Ericson har följt de unga afghanerna i deras vardag efter utvisningsbesluten, på tåget under flykten till Frankrike och i tältlägren under broarna i Paris. Han har även träffat många som är inspärrade i Migrationsverkets förvar där de sitter – ofta under många månader – i väntan på att bli deporterade till Afghanistan. Deras historia är en viktig del av berättelsen om ett samhälle i förändring, då humanitära principer lades åt sidan och Sverige genomförde en dramatisk åtstramning av flyktingpolitiken.