CCPR/C/128/D/3032/2017 out by the National Board of Forensic Medicine, has since been discontinued. Moreover, its report on the author also notes that there was a 16 per cent chance he was 16 years old. 3. It is not contested that Christians or converts who return to Afghanistan run a real risk of persecution and punishment, including the death penalty, under the Afghan legal system, and that the security situation in Afghanistan has seriously deteriorated. 7 In addition, it is not contested that ethnic Hazaras in Afghanistan are subjected to discrimination and occasionally subjected to targeted attacks and that persons who have no network in or knowledge of the country would be in a vulnerable position. The author falls in all of these vulnerable categories. Considering the above-mentioned facts, including that the author has openly expressed his Christian faith on social networks and was subjected to exposure through national Swedish media while participating in church services, and also considering that the staff of the Afghan Embassy in Stockholm are aware of his Christian faith, it is highly possible his identity and Christianity would come to the attention of Afghan authorities and individuals. In my view, the author’s vulnerability profiles combined with other multiple risk-enhancing circumstances would have serious adverse consequences in the country of origin so as to put him at risk of irreparable harm. In this case, the migration authorities seem to have assessed each ground for protection the author alleged separately, but did not consider that the combined grounds aggravate the risk of the author even though he has multiple vulnerability profiles.8 4. States parties should give sufficient weight to the real and personal risk that a person might face if deported, and it is incumbent upon the concerned State party to undertake an individualized assessment of the risk that the author, with multifaceted vulnerability, would face in Afghanistan. The risk the author would face if returned to Afghanistan is exacerbated by the fact that he has no family or relatives in that country, which he has not visited since he left there at the age of 10.9 5. In view of the above, the Swedish authorities have failed to adequately assess the author’s real, personal and foreseeable risk of returning to Afghanistan as a perceived Christian with additional risk-enhancing factors, and to take into due consideration the consequences of the author’s personal situation in his country of origin. Hence, the author’s removal to Afghanistan would, if implemented, violate his rights under articles 6 and 7 of the Covenant. 7 8 9 12 See European Asylum Support Office, Country of Origin Information Report: Afghanistan Security situation (June 2019). In the “Afghanistan 2018 International Religious Freedom Report” by the United States Department of State, it is reiterated that “Conversion from Islam to another religion is considered apostasy, which is punishable by death, imprisonment, or confiscation of property according to the Sunni Islam’s Hanafi school of jurisprudence”. It is also noted that: “There were no reports of government prosecutions for blasphemy or apostasy during the year, but converts from Islam to other religions reported they continued to fear punishment from the government as well as reprisals from family and society”. A.Q. v. Sweden (CCPR/C/127/D/3070/2017), para. 9.6. Ibid., para. 9.7.