CCPR/C/116/D/2314/2013
2.3
The author arrived in Canada on 17 October 2011 and filed an asylum claim. 4 On 12
February 2013, the Immigration Refugee Board dismissed his asylum request. The Board
considered that the author was not credible in various aspects of his account. First, he could
not establish that he had been a journalist or a professional photographer, could not
demonstrate that he had earned the photography awards he claimed he had won and could
not respond to questions related to basic knowledge of photography, which had a negative
impact on his bona fides. For example, the author was not able to respond to a question on
how to take a photograph with low light. Although the Immigration Refugee Board
acknowledges that there were problems of translation owing to the technical terms used in
these questions, it concludes that the author’s answers did not support his allegation of
being a professional photographer. Second, the Board found that it was probable that the
author had not been living in Sri Lanka at the end of the civil war, as he could not give a
detailed account of the events that had occurred in the country during this period, including
the presidential and legislative elections of 2010. The Board considered that, if he had been
a photographer, he should be aware of those events.5 Third, the author could not identify
any specific problem he had with the Eelam People’s Democratic Party, as he only claimed
that Party members did not like that he took photographs for the newspaper. Although the
Board recognized that being a journalist was a very dangerous profession in Jaffna, the
author was at best a photographer of dead people in one area of Jaffna who did not question
government policies or actions. Therefore, the Board expected the author to demonstrate his
allegations with corroborative evidence, such as a documental proof that he had worked for
the Uthayan, including a letter from the newspaper as his employer, bills from the
newspaper paying his salary or published photographs under his name, which he had not
provided. The Board did not give weight to the author’s press identity card, considering that
these documents are often forged in Sri Lanka. 6
2.4
The Immigration Refugee Board also stated that, even if it considered the author’s
allegations to be true, he would not be granted refugee status, as he could not establish that
his work was of a profile that could attract the attention of the Government. The Board
quoted reports indicating that only journalists perceived by the Government of Sri Lanka as
active or in an influential position would be at risk of being persecuted if returned there, 7
which was not the author’s case. Furthermore, being a Tamil from Jaffna and failed asylum
seeker would not constitute a basis to grant him refugee status, as reports indicated that,
after the end of the hostilities, the Sri Lankans originating from the north of the country
were no longer in need of protection8 and, by then, thousands of failed asylum seekers had
been returned in “generally safe conditions”.9
4
5
6
7
8
9
The complaint indicates that the author was detained in the United States of America before arriving
in Canada. When he arrived, the Canadian Border Service Agency seized from him documents
confirming his identity as a Tamil male from the Northern Province of Sri Lanka (his national identity
card and his birth certificate); the originals of these documents were returned to him.
The Immigration Refugee Board questions that the author had lived in Sri Lanka between the end of
2007 and the beginning of 2008, as his passport dates from 2007, and he left school in 2007 owing to
his “parents’ wishes”. The Board considers that this denotes a preparation to leave the country.
See above, footnote 1.
See United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland Home Office, operational guidance note
on Sri Lanka (April 2012), available from
www.gov.uk/government/uploads/system/uploads/attachment_data/file/310200/Sri_Lanka_operationa
l_guidance_2013.pdf
The State party quotes the UNHCR Eligibility Guidelines for Assessing the International Protection
Needs of Asylum Seekers from Sri Lanka, available from
http://unhcr.org.ua/attachments/article/349/LKA_EG_Dec%202012.pdf.
The State party quotes the operational guidance note on Sri Lanka (see note 7 above).
3