CAT/C/63/D/618/2014 United Nations Convention against Torture and Other Cruel, Inhuman or Degrading Treatment or Punishment Distr.: General 8 June 2018 Original: English Committee against Torture Decision adopted by the Committee under article 22 of the Convention, concerning communication No. 618/2014*, ** Communication submitted by: I.P.W.F. (represented by counsel, John Phillip Sweeney) Alleged victim: The complainant State party: Australia Date of complaint: 23 May 2014 (initial submission) Date of present decision: 10 May 2018 Subject matter: Deportation to Sri Lanka Procedural issue: Non-substantiation of claims Substantive issue: Risk of torture in the event of deportation to country of origin (non-refoulement) Articles of the Convention: 3 and 22 1.1 The complainant is I.P.W.F., a national of Sri Lanka born on 17 November 1981. He sought asylum in Australia, but his application was rejected. He claims that his forcible removal to Sri Lanka would constitute a violation by Australia of articles 1 and 3 of the Convention. The complainant is represented by counsel. 1.2 In his communication of 23 May 2014,1 the complainant urged the Committee to issue a request for interim measures in order to avert the imminent risk of his deportation to Sri Lanka pending the Committee’s examination of his complaint. On 28 July 2014, the Committee, acting through its Rapporteur on new complaints and interim measures, decided not to issue a request for interim measures under rule 114 of the Committee’s rules of procedure, as the complainant’s allegations of a risk of torture upon removal to Sri Lanka were not sufficiently substantiated. On 18 August 2014, the Committee reiterated that decision and informed the complainant accordingly. The complainant was removed to Sri Lanka on 13 January 2015, since all his appeals against the negative decisions of the Australian authorities were rejected. The facts as presented by the complainant 2.1 The complainant is Sinhalese by ethnicity, and Roman Catholic by religion. He was born in Mahawewe in the North Western Province of Sri Lanka. He is a fisherman by * Adopted by the Committee at its sixty-third session (23 April–18 May 2018). ** The following members of the Committee participated in the examination of the communication: 1 Essadia Belmir, Felice Gaer, Abdelwahab Hani, Claude Heller Rouassant, Jens Modvig, Ana Racu, Diego Rodríguez-Pinzón, Sébastien Touzé, Bakhtiyar Tuzmukhamedov and Honghong Zhang. A revised version of the communication was submitted to the Committee on 21 July 2014. GE.18-09394(E) 

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