CAT/C/64/D/730/2016
2.6
On 8 July 2012, the complainant was taken to Abu Dhabi, in order to be sent back to
Nigeria. She explained her situation and the threats to her life to an immigration officer.
She said that she wanted to go to the Caribbean. The immigration officer in Abu Dhabi
called the immigration services in Dubai and asked them to let her go to the Caribbean. She
was sent back to Dubai on 11 July 2012. However, the immigration services refused to let
her go to the Caribbean or to any other country. She was threatened by immigration
services and the Nigerian Embassy with being sent to Nigeria. At the Dubai Immigration
Jail, she was ordered to pay almost $3,000. She claims that she reported the illegal
detention and torture, and that an investigation was ordered.
2.7
On 23 September 2012, the complainant alleges that the immigration services in
Dubai forcibly and extrajudicially transferred her to the Islamic Republic of Iran as a spy,
hoping that she would be tortured and killed. In the Islamic Republic of Iran, on 18 January
2013, at around 2 a.m., an intruder tried to enter the room in which she was sleeping. Then,
on 15 February 2013, after 3 a.m., an intruder wearing a mask grabbed her while she was
sleeping. She screamed and the person ran out. She called the police, and the investigation
revealed that the attacker had come from Dubai with another man a few days earlier. The
attacker allegedly declared that his life would be in danger if the complainant pressed
charges against him. The complainant informed the police that she did not want to press
charges and signed a document given to her by the police.
2.8
While in the Islamic Republic of Iran, the Iranian authorities investigated the
complainant. She was not allowed to leave the country for more than six months. When the
Iranian authorities called her in for questioning, she stated what had happened. She asked to
be allowed to go to Georgia, where she could get a visa on arrival, and from where she
could go to a safe place. On 22 April 2013, the complainant was allowed to leave the
Islamic Republic of Iran to go to Georgia.
2.9
On 23 April 2013, the complainant arrived in Georgia and sought asylum the same
day. On 1 May 2013, she was sent to the Martkopi Reception Centre, a communal housing
project for asylum seekers, operated by the Ministry of Internally Displaced Persons from
the Occupied Territories, Accommodation and Refugees of Georgia (hereafter “the
Ministry”). For the complainant, this place was a mismanaged and hostile environment, in
which the staff commonly submitted asylum seekers to torture and brutalization.
2.10 On 3 May 2013, the complainant was allegedly attacked and injured by a woman
with a mental impairment and a male security officer acting in an official capacity. The
police were called and the complainant was taken to the police station, where she suffered a
“serious medical emergency” because of the injuries inflicted on her. When the paramedics
arrived, the Ministry staff allegedly refused to allow them to take the complainant to
hospital for further treatment and evaluation. 6 The physical trauma to her chest and
abdomen caused her to experience forced menstruation and heavy bleeding for months
without receiving treatment. Then, on 21 May 2013, she was taken to the Martkopi
ambulatory hospital, where she was prescribed some antibiotics and advised to return the
following day for blood tests. However, the Ministry staff refused to take her back to the
clinic for treatment, allegedly declaring that the Ministry did not have funds for medicines.
A member of staff at the Ministry named Yagoo even attacked her for requesting a copy of
her prescription to get her medicines. The complainant also declares that the Ministry staff
refused to buy most of the medicine that she had been prescribed for the injuries and
infection that she had contracted at the Centre. She was also not provided with food. On 23
May 2013, the complainant and other residents were physically attacked by Yagoo and
other Ministry staff, who threatened to evict, imprison and deport them. Fearing for their
safety, an asylum seeker called the emergency hotline of the Protection Unit of the Office
of the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) to report the hostilities.
UNHCR stated that they were coming, but arrived only the following day, on a prescheduled visit, without taking proper measures to protect them. No action was taken to
address their grievances. On 24 May 2013, the Ministry staff held a meeting with all the
asylum seekers at the Martkopi Reception Centre, and they threatened to imprison and
6
She claims that she received only “injections and other medicines”.
3