Activism can be a lonesome game, but that doesn’t make it any less impactful.

A 21-year-old Elin Ersson showed the world how to lead a one-woman protest when she refused to sit down until an Afghan asylum seeker was removed from a flight that would lead him back to the land of the dead. The plane at Gothenburg airport would eventually make its way to the war-torn country with intention of deporting two refugees.

The Guardian reports:

Her successful protest, footage of which spread rapidly across the internet, shines a spotlight on domestic opposition to Sweden’s tough asylum regime, at a time when immigration and asylum are topping the agenda of a general election campaign in which the far right is polling strongly.

During an interview with our source, Ersson said:

“I hope that people start questioning how their country treats refugees.

“We need to start seeing the people whose lives our immigration [policies] are destroying.”

Damn straight, girl.

And there’s evidence, too. Ersson filmed the entire episode on her smartphone, starting a live-stream as she entered the plane. More than four million people had watched the footage by Tuesday, and you’re about to join them:

I’ll be honest, this is quite emotional to watch. Tears on the laptop and all. This is a brilliant example of someone standing up (pun intended) for what’s right. I’m not going to say much more, because I really want you to watch the full video.

Amidst the celebration, bad news always finds it’s way:

The tragic postscript is that she believes the young man she was originally trying to stop getting deported was taken to Stockholm and put on a flight there.

Sweden’s centre-left coalition governments wants to uphold expulsions of asylum seekers that didn’t get the go-ahead. Their prime minister, Stefan Löfven, said last year that:

“If you get rejected, you have to go home – otherwise we will not have a proper migration system.”

With thousands of deportation cases expected to be handed over to police as the country struggles with a backlog of asylum applications, we can only hope they make the right decisions.

As for Elin Ersonn, we’re backing you all the way.

[source:theguardian]