CCPR/C/112/D/2053/2011
author to Senegal while his communication is under consideration by the Committee. On 20
December 2011, the State party informed the Committee that the author remained in
Australia.
Factual background
2.1
The author was born in Touba, Senegal, into a large and devoted Muslim family
who were then and remain members of the Mourides Brotherhood.
2.2
Through a number of friends, around 1994, the author discovered the Assemblies of
God Church, a Christian organization which offered food and other benefits to children
who attended the church. He became interested in the Bible and decided to become a
Christian. He was baptized on 13 November 1994. As a consequence of his conversion
from Islam to Christianity, his father, brothers and neighbours told him that if he did not
return to Islam, they would tell the Mourides Brotherhood to put a fatwa (death order) on
him to be killed. On an unspecified date in November 1994, the author’s family and some
members of the Mourides Brotherhood attacked him and he suffered injuries which
prevented him from walking for several days. The author also claims that he was thereafter1
kept at his father’s house for three days without food in an attempt to force him to convert
back to Islam. The author’s father told him that he had brought disgrace and shame on his
family and wanted him killed, unless he converted back to being a Muslim.
2.3
On an unspecified date in 1994, the author left Touba for Kaolack, a city south of
Touba, where he found work as a welder. While in Kaolack, he was located by his family
and other members of the Mourides Brotherhood, who beat him up and left him for dead.
2.4
On one occasion, the author reported to the Senegalese police that the Mourides
Brotherhood was going to kill him because he had become Christian. He was advised by a
senior police officer that there was nothing the police could do to protect him because it
was a family matter and because the Mourides Brotherhood was too powerful. 2
2.5
A Christian pastor advised the author to leave Senegal, for his safety, and provided
him with financial support to that end. The author arrived in South Africa on 14 October
1998. It was difficult to find work there and the author sold items on the street. He felt
homesick and therefore returned to Senegal in 2006. He worked for a short period in
Kaolack for his previous employer. However, he heard that people had come looking for
him, so he went into hiding. The author felt unsafe and returned to South Africa in April
2006.
2.6
Owing to hostility towards foreign workers in South Africa, the author left for
Australia, where he arrived on 14 October 2008.
2.7
On 9 April 2009, the author applied to the Department of Immigration and
Citizenship (DIAC) for a protection visa (class XA) under the 1958 Migration Act. On 8
July 2009, DIAC refused to grant him a protection visa on the ground that he did not
qualify as a person to whom Australia owed protection obligations under the 1951
Convention relating to the Status of Refugees.
1
2
No date specified.
The information submitted by the author is inconsistent regarding when and where that conversation
took place — in Touba following the first incident or in Kaolack following the second incident.
According to a Statutory Declaration dated 21 October 2010, which was submitted with the
communication, the conversation occurred following the first incident, and the police officer warned
him that the Mourides Brotherhood was “too powerful in Touba”.
3