CCPR/C/120/D/2640/2015
Denmark on 23 March 1976. The author is represented by counsel, initially by the Danish
Refugee Council and subsequently by Advokatkompagniet.
1.3
The communication was registered on 6 August 2015. Pursuant to rule 92 of its rules
of procedure, the Committee, acting through its Special Rapporteur on new
communications and interim measures, requested the State party to refrain from deporting
the authors to Bulgaria while their case was under consideration by the Committee. On 7
August 2015, the Refugee Appeals Board suspended the deadline for the authors’ departure
from Denmark until further notice, in accordance with the Committee’s request.
1.4
On 8 February 2016, as part of its observations on admissibility and the merits, the
State party requested that the Committee review its request for interim measures. On 2 May
2016, the Committee, acting through its Special Rapporteur on new communications and
interim measures, denied the State party’s request to lift interim measures.
The facts as submitted by the authors
2.1
The authors originate from the Syrian Arab Republic and fled the country together to
seek protection in Europe. They entered Denmark in January 2015. On 21 April 2015 and
11 June 2015, the Danish Immigration Service rejected their applications for residence. On
3 August 2015, the Refugee Appeals Board upheld the decisions of the Danish Immigration
Service.
2.2
In Bulgaria, the authors were registered as asylum seekers, but they did not receive
any assistance and had to buy their own food. They only had the use of a shared bath and
toilet, and at one point there was no water for 10 days. The guards at the asylum centre did
not speak to the applicants in an appropriate manner, and the children were not allowed to
go to school.
2.3 The authors themselves did not need medical assistance during their stay in Bulgaria.
A friend of Ra.R.H., the authors’ eldest son, died because no one called for an ambulance
when he needed it. The friend died about a week after the authors left Bulgaria. The eldest
son was sent a photo of his dead friend, and this had a great psychological impact upon him.
2.4
Furthermore, individuals from a party called the “Bald Ones” attacked an asylum
centre around 30 minutes away from where the authors were staying. According to the
authors, this party hates refugees and asylum seekers.
2.5
When the family members received their residence permits in Bulgaria in November
2014, they had to sign a document committing themselves to leaving the asylum centre
within 14 days. As asylum seekers, they had received 65 leva (about 13 euros) per month,
but that support was discontinued once they had obtained a residence permit. The authors
did not receive any other type of support. The family stayed at the asylum centre, and every
second day guards would come and threaten to evict them by force from the centre if they
did not leave voluntarily. The family had nowhere to go and was not given any form of
assistance.
The complaint
3.1
The authors claim that, by deporting them to Bulgaria, the State party would breach
their rights under article 7 of the Covenant. They maintain that they should be regarded as
vulnerable, given the young age of their two minor children. The authors claim they fear
that a return to Bulgaria will expose them and their children to inhuman or degrading
treatment contrary to the best interests of the children, since they face homelessness,
destitution, lack of access to health care and lack of personal safety in Bulgaria, where they
did not find any durable humanitarian solution.
3.2
The authors are not prepared to go back to Bulgaria because there is no access to
health care, even in very urgent situations. Secondly, the authors’ children do not have
access to schools and the authors themselves do not have access to employment.
Consequently, they say, the family does not have access to decent living conditions.
3.3
The authors add that reception conditions in Bulgaria for asylum seekers are
substandard. Although in theory, an integration programme formally exists, and although,
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