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Andrew Nagbe was arrested at a Pride event and and is currently in a detention centre awaiting deportation.

Sweden is to deport an openly gay footballer back to his native Liberia after a failed residency application.

The 22-year-old player was arrested by migration officials at the Stockholm Pride festival at the end of July.

Nagbe left Liberia for Sweden in 2013 to attend a trial with Division One team, Umea Football Club.

Homosexuality is illegal in Liberia and is persecuted and punishable by imprisonment.

“I want to play football and live as an openly gay man in Sweden,” the midfielder told the Swedish newspaper Dagens Nyheter when interviewed in detention.

It is still illegal to be openly gay in Liberia, and Nagbe claims he will suffer abuse if he returns home.

“In prison I’ll be beaten and raped every day until I am released and leave the country again. Everyone I know in Liberia knows I am gay now, so they won’t hold back,” he added from detention.

The paper added that Swedish migration officials “maintain that Nagbe’s claims to be both gay and that he would have his safety compromised if he returns home are not verifiable.”

It’s a sad move by a government who are considered to be incredibly progressive on LGBT rights.

 

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