CCPR/C/116/D/2402/2014 The complaint 3.1 The authors submit that, by forcibly returning them and their children to Italy, the Danish authorities would violate their rights under article 7 of the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights.2 They submit that since they were asked to leave the reception centre in Turin in March 2012, they have not been able to find housing, work or any durable humanitarian solution. They also submit that reception centres for asylum seekers and refugees with temporary residence permits in Italy do not meet basic humanitarian standards and that Italy is therefore not meeting its international protection obligations. 3 3.2 The second author submits that she had already tried seeking asylum in Norway after having been granted a residence permit in Italy in 2009. Upon her forced return to Italy in 2012, apart from being housed in a reception centre for a few months only, she was not offered assistance from the Italian authorities in finding shelter, work or permanent housing. She claims that in their current situation, the authors would be returning with two children with no right to access reception centres, as persons who have already been housed in such centres are not allowed access to them again if they are returning from another European country. Thus deportation to Italy would expose the authors and their children to inhuman and degrading treatment, because there would be no other solution for them but to live on the streets in destitution, with no prospect of finding durable humanitarian solutions. 3.3 On the principle of first country of asylum, the authors refer to conclusion No. 58 (XL) of the Executive Committee of the Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (1989) on the problem of refugees and asylum seekers who move in an irregular manner from a country in which they had already found protection, according to which that principle should be applied only if the applicants upon return to the first country of asylum “are permitted to remain there and to be treated in accordance with recognized basic human standards until a durable solution is found for them” (para. f (ii)). 3.4 On the Italian reception system for asylum seekers and beneficiaries of international protection, the authors cite other reports that state that international protection seekers returning to Italy who had already been granted a form of protection and benefited from the reception system when they were first in Italy were de facto not entitled to accommodation in the reception facilities in Italy. 4 This is a result of the lack of available places in reception centres and the fragmentation of the reception system, which mostly affects returnees from European countries. As a consequence, many such returnees are living on the streets or in the self-organized informal settlements that have flourished in the metropolitan areas, where they face overcrowding and sub-standard living conditions and have limited access to public services and no prospect of social integration. 2 3 4 4 The authors cite European Court of Human Rights, M.S.S. v. Belgium and Greece (application No. 30696/09), judgment of 15 December 2010; and European Court of Human Rights, Mohammed Hussein and Others v. the Netherlands and Italy (application No. 27725/10), decision of 2 April 2013. The authors refer to Swiss Refugee Council, “Reception conditions in Italy: Report on the current situation of asylum seekers and beneficiaries of protection, in particular Dublin returnees” (Berne, October 2013); Asylum Information Database, “Country report: Italy” (May 2013); Council of Europe, “Report by Nils Muižnieks, Commissioner for Human Rights of the Council of Europe, following his visit to Italy from 3 to 6 July 2012” (CommDH(2012)26). The authors cite Dublin Transnational Project, “Dublin II Regulation: National report, Italy”, 19 December 2012, available from www.dublin-project.eu/dublin/Dublin-news/New-report-Dublin-IIregulation-lives-on-hold; Asylum Information Database, “Country report: Italy”, p. 37; United States of America, Department of State, “Country Reports on Human Rights Practices for 2012: Italy”; Swiss Refugee Council, “Reception conditions in Italy”, pp. 4-5; and Jesuit Refugee Service Europe, “Protection Interrupted: The Dublin Regulation’s impact on asylum seekers’ protection”, June 2013, pp. 152 and 161. GE.16-10167