MASKA: Supporting Family
Reunification and Asylum
Seekers in Southern Sweden
by
by
Ali Salehi1
Text
Calibri
Ali Salehi is currently Managing Volunteer Legal Adviser in MASKA,
at the Swedish Red Cross, a role that he has held since 2008
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ISSN number : 2034-5372
Creative Commons Licence: Feel free to distribute this article. You must give the original
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INTRODUCTION
When discussed or mentioned in Swedish media, it is often the international work of the
Red Cross and the Red Crescent that get the most attention. But in Sweden, a great deal
of pro bono work is done by the Swedish Red Cross as well as by its volunteers in
Swedish alien law and related areas. This article will highlight some of the work done by
one of these groups in humanitarian law called MASKA. Its key activities include mainly:
tracing requests, Red Cross messages, family reunification and asylum cases, while
upholding the core principles of the Red Cross which is to be available as a support for
fellow human beings in need of assistance.
The voluntary group in question has many regional names and variations. This article will
focus on the procedure in which the team in Malmoe works on legal issues and other
related questions connected to international humanitarian law and the Swedish Alien Act.2
GROUP FUNCTIONING
The group’s name MASKA is a reflection of its work - a small mesh (in Swedish: Maska)
working to support people caught in limbo. MASKA is divided into two weekly groups,
which work twice a week in the evenings to contact, book and meet all applicant clients,
and to discuss their questions. Doing so, MAKSA provides the support and help that can
be given in each situation. Volunteers must sign a confidentiality agreement so that clients
are secure discussing and confiding information that might be burdensome to discuss for
both the talking and the listening party, but that can turn out to be crucial in the outcome of
the case. Furthermore, volunteers take the personal responsibility for the cases they take
on, as well as for accepting/rejecting client applications. To deal with these stressful
elements, a successful group dynamic is therefore particularly essential in MASKA.
The group leaders are in charge of the daily work and are the main contact with the local
chapter of the Red Cross which is responsible for the group. MASKA actively strives to
recruit people from all aspects of life and professions in order to mirror the multitude of
different clients and to bring different perspectives to its work. The group thus has
2
(2005:716); Avialable via: http://www.sweden.gov.se/sb/d/5805/a/66122
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MASKA: Supporting Family Reunification and Asylum Seekers in Southern Sweden
volunteers who study/studied law, human rights studies, sociology etc, as well as
representatives of a diverse spectrum of professional backgrounds. Language skills are
vital, as they are helpful in the contact with clients and help decrease costs for translators/
interpreters, one of the major expenses in our work.
WORK METHOD
i) Tracing requests and Red Cross messages
Tracing requests and Red Cross messages are two of the most important parts of the work
the Red Cross does in Sweden and at international level. Tracing requests are done for
family members and close relatives the clients have lost contact with due to reasons of
war, conflict and natural disaster. Red Cross messages are mainly used for engaging
family members in contact with their relatives being prisoners of war, but they are also
used together with tracing requests so that a message will be available from the client if
the sought after person is found.
In order to properly fill in the Red Cross tracing requests form, it is necessary to carry out a
long and thorough process of collecting information about the persons. It is important to
have good information about the area where they were last seen and other events or
details about the sought after person, which could be beneficial in the search.
MASKA is the main interviewer and plays a crucial role in this process. After the
information has been double checked and the client has answered the most important
questions, the form will be checked by the local Red Cross consultant, be sent to the head
office in Stockholm, and then be forwarded towards the international head office in Geneva
where all tracing requests are copied and deposited. Finally, the forms are then sent to the
country and specific area where the tracing will be performed by a local Red Cross/Red
Crescent representative that will use the information to look for the sought after person.
ii) Assistance in reunification appeals
In connection to MASKA’s work with family reunification, the group mainly works with the
rights pointed out in the EU Council Directive 2003/86/EC of 22 September 2003 on the
right to family reunification which is an essential document together with the Swedish
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Alien Act,3 which gives MASKA the tools to determine and assist in situations regarding
reunifications.
The group was created to answer the need of assistance in family reunification cases
where former asylum seekers who had been granted permanent residency in Sweden, for
different reasons received a negative decision regarding reunification with a family
member. These family members are denied residency because they are not regarded as
part of the immediate family. Such disqualifying distinctions are often determined by fine
points, e.g. a child having recently turned 18 years of age or elderly parents/grandparents
who cannot be shown to be essential to the needs of the resident in Sweden.
Since family reunification cases are not granted support through state paid legal counsel,4
clients tend to lack clarity regarding the procedure of family reunification and what is the
relevant legislation. This is where MASKA and the legal advisors of the Swedish Red
Cross can assist.
The mandate of MASKA is to represent people who have fled due to war, conflict or natural
disaster. Because of the limitations of the
Swedish Alien Act, the Red Cross can’t
represent all clients in all cases, but no client is ever turned down who falls within said
criteria. Nonetheless, advice and information will be given to any person seeking help.
Regarding the specific work of cases involving a family reunification application, the
MASKA group assists from early on in the procedure, like informing the clients about which
Swedish embassy or consulate that can be used for booking an interview for the applicant
abroad, to helping clients in Sweden fill in the forms relevant for the application that mostly
concerns the relationship between the client in Sweden and the applicant abroad.
Filling in this form correctly can often become a problem. At this stage, there is a need for
in-depth information and a comprehensive timeline about the relationship between the
applicant and reunification person in Sweden. This requirement concerns the time before
as well as after the arrival of the client to the new country, and it can make it difficult for
many newly arrived refugees who often have difficulties remembering details because of
3
i.e. Swedish Alien Act, 2005:716, chapter 5, sections 3-3a.
for the first three authorities in the normal asylum procedure, that is the Migration board, Migration court
and the Migration high court
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MASKA: Supporting Family Reunification and Asylum Seekers in Southern Sweden
the great number of traumatised clients seeking reunification. MASKA therefore also has
established a good working relationship with the Red Cross special team of psychologists
and psychotherapists who work with refugees who have had traumatising experiences and
have been subjected to torture.
Documenting relationships is particularly relevant when an applicant is not an immediate
family member under law, and therefore is obliged to show other reasons determining the
close need for, and connection to, the person in Sweden. These points are best found in
the Swedish Alien Acts 5th chapter.5 MASKA can also contact the responsible state
agency when the reunification case has entered the reviewing process if situations occur
where mistakes or other problematic circumstances need to be observed by the authorities
administrating the case.
Situations more related to the legal aspect are for example the writing by the group of
appeals to the Migration court6, in cases when the responsible authority (the Swedish
Migration board) has denied a family reunification. Here the group works in close
connection with the Red Cross legal counsel team, which has many years of experience
with both family reunification and asylum cases. MASKA always sends the final draft of the
appeal to the responsible legal counsel for approval before sending it to the court, but in
many ways the ground work for the appeal lays with the group.
This includes interviewing the client and family members in Sweden, and also getting the
relevant information needed by the applicants who want to be reunited with the client in
Sweden. Key concerns includes getting all the relevant documents and decisions in the
case and reviewing details, which have not been fully addressed or looked at by the
Migration Board in connection to the applicable law. A lot of time is also spent reviewing
rulings by the Migration High Court to find precedents that can support similar cases. In all,
the work can be considered as challenging and important from the rule of law perspective
and the right for every person to have a just and correct dealing with authorities.
5
6
Swedish Alien Act, 2005:716, chap.(5), s.(3)-(3)(a), p. 12-13
or the Migration high court if the legal counsel determines a legal question can be found for the high court
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iii) Assistance in asylum cases
It is worth mentioning that asylum cases reach the Red Cross and the MASKA group, after
they have reached a critical stage, i.e. three negative decisions by the Migration Board, the
Migration Court and finally the Migration High Court. After the third rejection by the
Migration High Court, the Swedish state will no longer pay the asylum seeker’s lawyer. In
many cases, this leaves the person without legal representation even though a narrow
possibility to be granted a residence permit still exists if there are new circumstances that
can be presented and that have not been stated earlier. It is generally at this stage that the
Red Cross reviews the case to see if there are any new circumstances to present in an
appeal.
MASKA has the role of rapporteur and presents the legal counsel team with a detailed and
summarized memo about each case reached. During the work, in order to reach this
conclusion, the group can have meetings with the client and also need all relevant
documents and decisions from the state agencies to be able to give a comprehensive
presentation. The legal counsel then decides if there is any way to legally help the client.
Otherwise, advice and other forms of information are given to the clients about what
procedures they can expect after their final rejection.
CONCLUDING REMARKS
This brief summary of the pro bono work of the Swedish Red Cross and some of its
volunteers gives a glimpse of some existing problems regarding legal support in Sweden,
while it also provides some solutions. As reality-based practical experiences are much
needed for future jurists and other professionals, MASKA tries to reciprocate the pro bono
work of its volunteers by giving beneficial experiences and knowledge while sharing with
them the Red Cross core principles, hopefully to be used as good stepping stones for the
future.
Ali Saheli
Published as part of the Effectius Newsletter, Issue 15, (2011)
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