UN rights panel finds Sweden violated disabled child's rights in deportation to Albania

A UN human rights panel has found that Sweden violated the rights of a severely disabled child by deporting him to Albania without ensuring he could obtain essential medical care, a determination issued Monday by the UN Human Rights Committee. The case concerns E.B., an Albanian national diagnosed with autism, a grave developmental disorder, spastic diplegic cerebral palsy, hydrocephalus and epilepsy.

He and his family arrived in Sweden in 2012 seeking international protection and medical treatment. After unsuccessful asylum applications and appeals, Swedish authorities deported the family in 2016 and again in 2019. In its findings, the Committee said states must refrain from deporting individuals when there are substantial grounds to believe they would face a real risk of irreparable harm in the receiving country.

Such decisions, it emphasized, must rest on rigorous, individualized assessments of a person’s specific circumstances, particularly where vulnerable individuals, including children with disabilities, are concerned. The Committee concluded Swedish migration authorities failed to adequately assess and verify medical evidence submitted during domestic proceedings.

That evidence indicated E.B. relied on a vital medical shunt and required continuous specialist care, without which his life would be at risk, and that such care was not effectively accessible in Albania.

The Committee also took note of claims that, after the first deportation, a hospital in Tirana declined to treat him due to the complexity of his condition, and that after the second deportation he depended on epilepsy medication supplied from Sweden through non-governmental channels.

On this basis, the Committee found Sweden’s removal decisions exposed E.B. to a foreseeable and real risk to his life, violating his rights under the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights, including the right to life and the prohibition of torture and cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment.

It further noted that, as E.B. currently faces a new removal order, appropriate measures must be taken to prevent irreparable harm. Under international law, children are recognized as autonomous rights holders entitled to special care and protection.

The Convention on the Rights of the Child provides that children with disabilities are entitled to assistance that ensures dignity and participation, and that the best interests of the child must be a primary consideration in all actions concerning them. Read together, these standards impose a heightened obligation on states to adopt child-sensitive, disability-inclusive approaches in decision-making.

The Committee’s findings underscore the requirement for rigorous, individualized assessments before removal, particularly in cases involving medically vulnerable children. It indicated that steps should be taken to avert irreparable harm while the current removal order remains pending.