Video of Swedish woman stopping Afghan man’s deportation by refusing to sit down on plane goes viral

A Swedish woman successfully halted an Afghan man’s deportation by refusing to sit down on an airplane this week.

Elin Ersson, a 23-year-old university student, live-streamed the protest to her Facebook page and the video has since gone viral.

In the nearly 15-minute video, Ersson films herself walking the aisle of the airplane while other passengers shout at her to sit down so the plan can depart. The 52-year-old deportee was accompanied by Swedish authorities, according to The Washington Post.

{mosads}“I’m not going to sit down until this person is off the plane,” she says, “because he will most likely get killed … when he gets off [in Afghanistan].”

Throughout the video, flight attendants can be heard telling Ersson to turn her phone off and sit down, as well as other passengers urging her to stop the protest. Some passengers are heard to cheer her efforts, including one Turkish man who says, “We are with you.”

“I don’t want a man’s life to be taken away just because you don’t want to miss your flight,” she says to one passenger.

The flight, traveling from Sweden’s Gothenburg airport to Istanbul, was delayed by over two hours due to Ersson’s protest. One flight attendant tells Ersson that authorities “are going to decide what to do” with the deportee once the flight reaches Istanbul.

Passengers are heard applauding as the man is apparently escorted off the plane. Swedish authorities told German news outlet Deutsche Welle that the man would remain in custody and would be deported, according to the Post. People from Afghanistan make up one of the largest groups of asylum-seekers in the European Union, the newspaper added

It is unclear whether Ersson will face fines or punishment for the protest. Ersson left the flight of her own accord, according to the Post.