The ECHR ruled last month that removals to Iraq should be stopped because of decreasing security but legally (under 'rule 39') individuals had to go to them to get individual removals suspended. It agreed to look quickly at over 400 petitions from Iraqis in Sweden, including the Kurdish lesbian couples.
Rulings stopping removals, however, have not always been strictly observed by EU national governments.
This means that the couple is not safe because Swedish authorities believe it is safe to return them
It was not questioned that they were in fact lesbian, but the migrations office (and the migrations court) considered the situation in [Northern Iraq] (the Kurdish areas) to be safe, as long as one lived discrete there.
It is common, looking at a new report on the state of LGBT Asylum in the EU, for countries to hold that LGBT asylum seekers can 'tolerate' living repressed lives amidst fear of discovery and therefore it is safe to return them
However, despite denials, evidence from Iraq shows that honour killings in the Kurdish North are common, may be increasing, and the couple are under specific threat.
Pari's family is powerful and connected to the government. When she refused to be married off to a relative and confessed that she loved a woman death sentences were issued by her clan. Dilsa says her brother has already been murdered for helping her to flee. No 'discretion' will save them.
