CRPD/C/24/D/49/2018
A.
Summary of the information and arguments submitted by the parties
Facts as submitted by the author
2.1
The author was born outside of marriage, which is considered a great sin in
Afghanistan. He is disabled, as he is missing the three middle fingers on his right, dominant,
hand. For this reason, he has been exploited and subjected to ill-treatment, including rape and
other sexual abuse, and to social exclusion his entire life. Both his Hazara ethnicity and his
non-marital birth have rendered him vulnerable. His parents had been killed, and he had lived
with his paternal uncle during his childhood. His maternal family, who he had been told
wished to harm him, was looking for him and he had thus been forced to move to Kabul with
his paternal family, where he had mostly stayed indoors. He had to quit school when it was
no longer safe to attend. Shortly after his uncle’s death, he was forced to flee Afghanistan, as
his maternal family had continued to look for him. He claims that he suffers from posttraumatic stress disorder.
2.2
The author is convinced that those looking for him are doing so on the ground of his
disability, given the general perception towards persons with disabilities in Afghanistan.
However, he is unaware why he had been raped and persecuted, and a continuing personal
threat against him in Afghanistan can therefore not be excluded.
2.3
The Swedish Migration Agency rejected the author’s claim of impediments to the
enforcement of the expulsion order on 26 January 2018. The Migration Court rejected his
appeal on 21 February 2018 and the Migration Court of Appeal denied leave to appeal on 8
March 2018.
Complaint
3.1
The author claims that, by deporting him to Afghanistan, the State party would violate
his rights under articles 15, 16 and 26 of the Convention. He argues that he would be
subjected to torture or other cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment or punishment, as well as
discrimination, exploitation and abuse by the authorities and “civilians” in Afghanistan
because of his disability, including at the hands of those who abused him sexually in the past.1
He asserts that there is a great risk that they would come to search for him and argues that
his ethnicity, status as a child born to unmarried parents and lack of relatives render him more
vulnerable, as would his disability, given that disabilities are looked down on in Afghanistan.
Furthermore, his long residence in Sweden may cause a perception that he has left Islam. He
states that country information and the Migration Agency’s model decision for Afghanistan
indicate that persons with disabilities and without a social network have greater problems in
finding employment and are thus more vulnerable.2 In the author’s case, the prospect of being
marginalized and having difficulties in finding work due to his handicap and lack of
education is supported by his history of persecution.
3.2
The author claims that the cutting of fingers, as happened in his case, is a common
response to “honour” crimes in Afghanistan. Upon return, he would therefore be considered
guilty of a serious crime, even by those who do not know him.
3.3
The author also refers to information that he became aware of only after his final
decision, indicating the vulnerable position of persons with disabilities in Afghanistan, 3 and
claims that the information constitutes a new circumstance that should give rise to a new
assessment by the Swedish authorities. That information also indicates a lack of access to
health care and hospitals.4 However, the author requires help and health care for his disability
and his mental health, as he suffers from an elevated risk of suicide. He refers to D. v. United
Kingdom, in which the European Court of Human Rights concluded that the expulsion of the
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2
The author refers to Department of State of the United States of America, 2016 Country Reports on
Human Rights Practices, Afghanistan (3 March 2017), pp. 46–47.
Migration Agency, “Rättsligt ställningstagande angående säkerhetssituationnen i Afghanistan – SR
31/2017” (29 August 2017); Sweden, Ministry for Foreign Affairs, “Mänskliga rättigheter, demokrati
och rättsstatens principer i Afghanistan 2015-2016 (26 April 2017)”, p. 18.
Migration Agency, “Rättsligt ställningstagande angående säkerhetssituationnen i Afghanistan – SR
31/2017” (29 August 2017), p. 8.
Ibid., p. 5.