The support group for Farida gets the Amnesty Award
The support group’s burning commitment to fetching Farida Khurami (12) back to Norway is the reason why they receive the Amnesty Award for their work.
– The support group has managed to place focus on serious human rights deficiencies in the way Norway treats asylum seekers. Particularly in view of minor asylum seekers and forced returns to Afghanistan, the explanatory states.
It is particularly emphasized that the group’s approach to using de facto, rights-based arguments. This while highlighting how hard injustice is affecting specific individuals. In sum, this is an important contribution to ensuring that human rights play a role in the Norwegian asylum debate.
The now twelve-years-old Afghan girl Farida, was in 2015 forcefully returned to Afghanistan along with her family, ostensibly because they hail from a ”safe” part of Afghanistan and that they don’t face serious repercussions there. The family lived at Dokka whilst in Norway, and the Farida support group consists largely of persons from the local community in the municipality of Nordre Land in Oppland.
Norwegian courts have come to the conclusion that the forced return of Farida Khurami and her mother to Kabul is unjustified. The Norwegian authorities, on their side, still contend that this entails that they must bring the family back to Norway. The support group will, once again, bring the matter to court to overturn this decision.
The prize was awarded at Amnesty International’s National Convention in Stavanger on Saturday.
A brief background for the Farida case
Farida Khurami and her mother, Noorya Muhsini, were granted a stay in Norway on the basis that Farida was the result of an extra-marital affair. When the father later came to Norway, the Immigration Authorities (UNE) revoked their right to stay. The key issue as they see it is, therefore, whether she can be viewed as growing up in Norway based on living here for three years before being forcefully returned to Afghanistan.
The support group, on the other hand, maintains that Farida had never lived in Afghanistan, but instead was born on the run in Iran – in line with the mother’s original story.
The Norwegian public broadcaster, NRK, has compiled a list of articles relating to the case (in Norwegian).
© NTB scanpix / #Norway Today | Sources: NRK / Amnesty International
