Swedish student stops Afghan man’s deportation by refusing to take plane seat

When Swedish student Elin Ersson learned that an Afghan man was scheduled to be deported from Sweden Monday, she bought a ticket for the same flight. Once she boarded the plane at Gothenburg airport, Ersson refused to take her seat, standing in the aisle, until the 52-year-old deportee was released. Her dramatic act of civil disobedience, which she live-streamed on Facebook in English, forced the flight to be delayed by two hours, according to Swedavia, the company that operates the airport. Ultimately, her efforts succeeded – at least for the time being. The Afghan deportee was escorted off the plane before it took off. As she continued filming and refusing to take her seat, passengers and flight attendants are heard on the video growing increasingly frustrated. “Sit down, we want to go,” one voice is heard saying. A flight attendant tells her several times to turn off her phone, because the airline’s safety demonstration was underway. “You have to take your seat and turn it off or you can leave the aircraft,” the flight attendant says.<br/>