BEYOND AFGHANISTAN – The Struggle of the Refugees is a photojournalistic essay about the unaccompanied young refugees who came from Afghanistan and their struggle to create a life for themselves in Sweden.

For two-months in the late summer and autumn of 2017 there was a sit-down protest in Stockholm against the deportations from Sweden. Photojournalist Åke Ericson got to know many of those who took part and has since followed their fates through the asylum process.  

Some were granted residence, while others who had their applications rejected are now in hiding or have fled to other places in Europe, so as to avoid the forced deportation to Kabul. 

Åke Ericson followed the young Afghans in their everyday lives after receiving their deportation orders, on the train while fleeing to France and in the tent-camps under the bridges of Paris. He also met many who are locked-up in the Swedish Migration Agency's detention centre, where they sit, often for many months, waiting to be deported to Afghanistan.

Their individual stories are an important part of the story of a society in change, when humanitarian principles were laid aside while Sweden carried out a dramatic tightening of its refugee policy.

Along with the release of BEYOND AFGHANISTAN – The Struggle of the Refugees there will be an exhibition with photos by Åke Ericson at Galleri Kontrast in Stockholm; as well as conversation evenings and debates.