CCPR/C/126/D/2346/2014
February 2016, the Committee was informed that the author was claiming a violation of
article 13 instead of article 14 of the Covenant. The Optional Protocol entered into force for
the State party on 23 March 1976. The author is represented by counsel.
1.2
When submitting the communication, on 7 February 2014, the author requested that,
pursuant to rule 94 of its rules of procedure, the Committee requested the State party to refrain
from returning him to Afghanistan while his case was being considered by the Committee.
On 11 February 2014, the Committee, acting through its Special Rapporteur on new
communications and interim measures, decided not to accede to the request. On 18 March
2014, counsel informed the Committee that on 17 March 2014 the author was forcibly
returned to Afghanistan.
Factual background2
2.1
The author entered Denmark on 15 September 2011 without any valid travel
documents and applied for asylum on the same day. According to an asylum registration
report of 21 September 2011, the author was registered in Denmark under the name of E.K.
and as being born on 30 June 1992 in the Islamic Republic of Iran. The author argued,
however, that he was born in Iran on 30 June 1996 and that he had had a blue card indicating
he was an Afghan in the Islamic Republic of Iran. However, he contended that he had never
been to Afghanistan and had never been issued with any documents from Afghanistan. The
blue card had been revoked by the Iranian authorities in or around 2008, as an Iranian policy
towards Afghans. After this revocation, the author and his family had stayed illegally in the
Islamic Republic of Iran. His father had been returned to Afghanistan three and a half years
earlier and the author had not seen him since and, according to what had been told by
acquaintances, his father had died. In view of the poor economic situation of the author’s
family in the Islamic Republic of Iran, when told about conditions in Denmark, the author
decided to go there. This had happened at the same time as the author had been falsely
accused of having killed another man. Although he had not been subjected to arrest,
imprisonment or house searches, the author feared being unjustly imprisoned in the Islamic
Republic of Iran. In addition, the author had stayed illegally in the Islamic Republic of Iran
and wanted a better life.
2.2
On 7 November 2011, the Danish Immigration Service decided on the basis of an
assessment of the author’s age made on 5 October 2011 that he would be registered as having
been born on 30 June 1992 and accordingly not be considered an unaccompanied minor.
2.3
In his asylum application form of 23 September 2011, the author had stated that his
name was E.K. and that he was born on 30 June 1996 in the Islamic Republic of Iran. He was
an ethnic Hazara of the Shia Muslim faith. He had gone to school for five years and had
worked as a tailor’s apprentice in Tehran. Concerning his grounds for seeking asylum, the
author stated that he was born and raised in the Islamic Republic of Iran. His father had been
deported to Afghanistan due to his lack of documents. The author had subsequently been told
by some friends that his father had been killed by the Taliban. One day a fight had broken
out at the author’s workplace in the Islamic Republic of Iran and one of his colleagues had
stabbed another colleague with a knife. The family of the person killed had blamed the author
for having organized the killing. They had come to the author’s home and had attacked his
mother. The police had also come to the author’s home twice. The author said that he feared
being deported to Afghanistan, as he did not want to suffer a similar fate to his father and as
Afghanistan was at war, violence and killings occurred every day. The Taliban had killed the
author’s father, who had had no conflicts or problems with anyone in the Islamic Republic
of Iran or Afghanistan.
2.4
The author stated during the interview conducted by the Danish Immigration Service
on 12 December 2011 regarding his grounds for seeking asylum, inter alia, that his father
was killed in Afghanistan after his deportation between two to three and a half years ago,
when the Iranian authorities had refused to renew his residence card. The author was not
2
2
The facts on which the present communication is based have been reconstructed on the basis of the
author’s own incomplete account, the decisions of the Refugee Appeals Board of 6 February 2013
and 6 February 2014 and other supporting documents available on file.