CAIRO: A Swedish journalist and blogger specializing in Egyptian labor issues was stopped by security at Cairo airport early Tuesday and was set to be deported from the country, his girlfriend and the Swedish embassy said.
Per Bjorklund, who spent the last year covering labor strikes in Egypt, was returning to the country with his girlfriend from their native Sweden via Prague, when he was detained.
Earlier in September, an American citizen who participated in a pro-Palestinian demonstration with Bjorklund was also prevented from entering the country.
“They held his passport and they said I had to go on,” Bjorkland’s girlfriend Anna Sicking said. “They said something came up and they held him.” Sicking waited six hours at the airport for Bjorklund until she was told he had been sent back to Prague.
Egyptian blogger and journalist Hossam El-Hamalawy spoke to Bjorklund at about 4.30 a.m. while he was in detention shortly before his mobile phone went silent.
“He was told his name was on a computer and he was to be returned to Prague,” he said.
The Swedish Embassy in Cairo told The Associated Press it was working on the case and trying to learn from the Egyptians why Bjorklund was being expelled.
“We haven’t been able to get in touch with him,” said Joakim Vaverka, embassy press counselor, adding that it was unclear whether he was still in Egypt.
“If he hasn’t left he will be asked to leave but we don’t know if that decision has been executed yet.”
A security official at the airport told AP that Bjorklund was detained by order of State Security, the nation’s plainclothes security force, and he was still in custody awaiting deportation.
The next flight from Cairo Airport to Prague is early Thursday.
