CCPR/C/123/D/2768/2016
to refrain from deporting the author to Serbia while her case was under consideration by the
Committee.
The facts as submitted by the author
2.1
The author was born in Cameroon. She resided in Douala, Cameroon, with her son
and her sister. On 8 February 2015, while the author and her son were away, unidentified
persons broke into her apartment and severely beat her sister. 1 The attack was motivated by
her sister’s homosexuality. Homosexuality is illegal in Cameroon. Following the attack, the
Cameroonian authorities issued an arrest warrant for the author and her sister, accusing the
author of facilitating homosexuality. 2 The author therefore fled with her son and her sister
to northern Cameroon.
2.2
Soon afterwards, the arrest warrant was extended to the whole territory of the
country. The author therefore fled in June 2015, to Yambio, South Sudan, together with her
son and sister, to live with her father and half-brother. South Sudan was in a state of civil
war at that time. One night in November 2015, a group of around 30 armed men broke into
the author’s father’s house and forced the author and her father, and her half-brother and
her sister respectively, to engage in sexual acts. They then killed all the men and boys
present, including the author’s 10-year-old son. Following the attack, Mr. B., a friend of the
author’s father, offered to help the author and her sister to flee to Europe.
2.3
At an unknown date, the author and her sister flew to Istanbul, Turkey, accompanied
by Mr. B. At the airport, Mr. B took their possessions and left, promising to return. Instead,
two strangers took them to a van with around 10 other people. Two weeks later, the author
and her sister were blindfolded and forced into a van with many other occupants. 3 They
travelled during the night and were not told of their destination, but the next morning they
arrived in Belgrade. The traffickers kept the author and her sister captive in a house for at
least one month, until February 2016. During that time, the traffickers raped them and
forced them into prostitution.
2.4
During a night of February 2016, the traffickers abandoned the author, her sister and
several other captives in a forest close to the Hungarian border, informing them that they
were already in Hungary, although in fact they were still in Serbia. On 23 February 2016,
after walking in the direction indicated by the traffickers, the author and her sister entered
Hungary through holes in the border fence. They were caught by the police and brought to
the Border Control field office in Szeged, where they submitted an asylum application. On
24 February 2016, they were placed in the Bicske refugee reception centre.
2.5
On 11 April 2016, the Office of Immigration and Nationality conducted the author’s
first and only interview. A French-speaking interpreter was present. However, at the end of
the interview, the interviewer did not read the minutes back to the author and she was not
therefore able to correct the errors.4 On 13 April 2016, legal advisers from the Hungarian
Helsinki Committee met with the author and provided her with the translated minutes of her
interview. The author and the legal advisers noted the errors and drafted a document that
the author submitted to the Office of Immigration and Nationality.
2.6
On 15 April 2016, the Office of Immigration and Nationality declared the author’s
application inadmissible under section 51 (2) (e) of Act LXXX of 2007 on Asylum
(Asylum Act), on the grounds that she had arrived through Serbia, which was considered a
safe third country. The author alleges that the Office of Immigration and Nationality did not
give any consideration to the document prepared by the Helsinki Committee. 5 The decision
1
2
3
4
5
2
As a consequence of the attack, the author’s sister had to undergo surgery to have her ovaries
removed.
The Committee has no information as to the date of the arrest warrant.
The Committee has no information as to what happened during those two weeks.
The author alleges that, for example, the minutes incorrectly recorded that she was lesbian, like her
sister, and that this was her reason for leaving Cameroon.
The author provides the original decision in Hungarian and an unofficial translation. The decision
makes no reference to the Helsinki Committee document, but repeats some of the errors from the
asylum interview that were clarified in the Helsinki Committee document.