Can Sweden deport an eight-month-old baby alone?
If a person, regardless of age, does not have the legal right to reside in Sweden, they will receive a deportation or rejection decision. There are special provisions to take into account when it comes to children, but fundamentally there is no obstacle, according to Rebecca Thorburn Stern, professor of international law at Uppsala University.
"However, a child may not be deported alone without there being an arranged reception, which in practice can be difficult when it comes to such a young child," she writes in an email to TT.
Why is the boy being expelled?
There is no legal basis to grant the child a residence permit, according to the Migration Board. The mother received a work permit through a track change in 2022, but the possibility of a track change was removed in April 2025 and the change in law was implemented without transitional provisions. Since the boy was born after that, he cannot receive a residence permit as a relative of his mother.
No adjustments were made to the law to handle the consequences that arose when the provision was removed, says Louise Dane, a lawyer at the Asylum Office.
According to the decision, which TT has seen, it appears that the Migration Board has decided that the boy cannot receive a residence permit due to particularly distressing circumstances.
What do the experts say about the decision?
There is a risk that the expulsion decision would violate the Convention on the Rights of the Child, says Louise Dane. A child is considered an independent holder of rights. This means that the assessment should be made based on the child's access to their rights in Sweden and in Iran respectively. The principle of the best interests of the child is also included in the Aliens Act.
Deporting an eight-month-old baby is nothing short of completely unreasonable and should not happen, says Amanda Johansson Köves, doctor of public law and lecturer at Stockholm University.
Rebecca Thorburn Stern believes that the boy should be granted a residence permit due to particularly painful circumstances. In this case, the Convention on the Rights of the Child could be taken into account, but also the European Convention, which addresses the right to family life.
"Maybe you could take into account that it's an eight-month-old baby," says Louise Dane.
What happens now?
The boy's family has appealed to the Migration Court, so the case is not closed.
All deportations to Iran are on hold due to the security situation. There is a possibility of deciding on deportation with deferred enforcement, but forced deportations to Iran are unusual, according to Louise Dane.
The boy's mother's work permit expires in October. At that time, the family will apply for permanent residency, according to their legal representative Shila Monjezi.
In January, a decision was made to deport the boy to Iran. The boy does not have a residence permit, but the rest of the family does. His mother received a work permit via a track change in 2022. People whose asylum applications had been rejected could receive a work permit if they had employment, which the mother had.
Sveriges Radio Ekot was the first to report on the incident.
The rest of his family has been granted a residence permit, as relatives of the mother, but because the boy was born after the new law was implemented, he could not obtain a residence permit in the same way.
In April last year, that option was removed, and relatives of track changers – like the boy – could no longer obtain a residence permit. The boy's family has a residence permit that extends until October.
