Myanmar issued him an invalid passport. Five years later, Sweden aims to deport him.

Emmanuel and his family. Photo: Swedish Radio
Emmanuel and his family. Photo: Swedish Radio

Emmanuel Rise, a Myanmar citizen, has been living with his Swedish wife in Sweden since 2012. The couple have two children, and he has a temporary residence permit. But after he applied for permanent residence in 2014, the Sweden’s Migration Court told him his Myanmar passport is invalid, and now he must be deported.

Emmanuel and and his now-wife Carina met in 2008, while they were both working in Mae Sot, Thailand. Carina was working with an aid project; Emmanuel, an ethnic Kayin, had fled Burma two decades earlier and was a member of the National League for Democracy-Liberated Areas – part of the Burmese democracy movement operating along the border.

“I have been in exile for many years,” Emmanuel told Coconuts, trying to explain the events that would follow.

He and Carina had their first child, a son, in November 2009. They were married in Thailand by Burmese lawyers.

In April 2011, Carina moved to Sweden with their son. It took Emmanuel several months to get a passport from the Myanmar government, and he was only able to join his family in Sweden in 2012.

Emmanuel used the same passport to get a temporary residence permit, which would be valid from October 2012 to October 2014.

When the family traveled to Thailand to visit friends in 2014, Emmanuel decided to apply for a new passport at the Myanmar embassy in Bangkok because the old one was about to expire.

When they returned to Sweden, Carina worked as a researcher at the National Defense University in Karlstad, and Emmanuel, now a Swedish speaker, worked as a CNC operator.

Emmanuel also decided to apply for permanent residence. But when he sent in his passport – the same passport he had just used to travel between Sweden and Thailand – the Migration Board said it had been ‘manipulated’ and would be sent in for analysis.

He was told that since his identity could not be verified in the absence of a valid passport, he would be deported.

“The strange thing is that up to now [the passport] has been used and approved by Swedish and Thai authorities on several occasions, both when traveling and when Emmanuel got his Swedish ID card. It is very strange that now it would suddenly shatter our family,” Carina told the Swedish news site DN. The couple had their second child, a daughter, last fall.

Carina insists that the passport was issued by the Myanmar embassy in Bangkok and has not been manipulated. Emmanuel also struggles to come up with anything more than a vague explanation for his predicament, saying: “I got the passport in 2012, when Myanmar was still corrupt.”

He has tried to get his identity verified by the Myanmar embassies in Oslo, London, Berlin, and Paris. They all say it’s impossible. He has also tried to appeal for Swedish residence on compassionate grounds, saying: “I have learned Swedish, I have two kids and a wife, I have a job. I have lived here since 2012. I have traveled several times, and I have a Swedish ID card.”

Sweden’s Migration Court says none of this matters.

“Emmanuel Rise has strong ties to Sweden through his wife and his children, and he has lived in Sweden for a long time. [But] his identity has never been elucidated. The Migration Court does not consider it disproportionate to expel him because the state’s interest in knowing who is staying here must prevail in this case,” the Court wrote to DN.

“I am illegal both in Sweden and in Burma now. Stateless. If the Swedish authorities send me back to Burma, I will end up in jail,” he told Coconuts.

Emmanuel has tried to prove his identity through witness statement and through DNA analysis that shows he is the full sibling of his sister, who is now a US citizen. The Migration Court has also dismissed expert opinions on the difficulty of getting authentic Burmese passports, according to Swedish Radio.

Earlier this week, Emmanuel filed an appeal to a higher Swedish court.

“I hope they accept my case,” he said. “Otherwise, this is the end.”

The couple told DN: “In everyday life, we try to feel good. We take each day as it comes. But inside, it’s tearing us apart.”

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