CCPR/C/128/D/2984/2017
general need to protect all asylum seekers from that country. The State party submits that
the author is the one who has to show that he personally faces a real risk of being subjected
to treatment in violation of article 7 of the Covenant upon return to Rwanda.
4.3
The State party explains that several provisions of the Swedish Aliens Act reflect the
same principles as those laid down in article 3 of the Covenant. National authorities are in a
very good position to assess the information submitted by an asylum seeker and to appraise
the credibility of his or her statements and claims. In that connection, the Migration Agency
and the Migration Court have conducted thorough examinations of the complainant’s case.
The State party submits that, on 2 June 2014, the Migration Agency held an introductory
interview with the author and shared the minutes with the author’s counsel on 16 June 2014.
On 11 August 2014, an extensive asylum investigation that lasted for more than three hours
took place in the presence of the public counsel, and the minutes were also communicated
to the public counsel on 13 August 2014. Both the interview and the investigation were
conducted in the presence of interpreters, and the author confirmed that he understood them
well. The author was also able to submit written observations on the minutes, and therefore
had several opportunities to explain the relevant facts and circumstances to support his
claims. For this reason, the State party submits that the migration authorities have had
sufficient information, together with the facts and documentation in the case, to ensure that
they had a solid basis for making a well-informed, transparent and reasonable risk
assessment concerning the complainant’s need for protection in Sweden. The State party
contends that there is no reason to conclude that the national rulings were inadequate or that
the outcome of the domestic proceedings was in any way arbitrary or amounted to a denial
of justice, and that considerable weight must be attached to the opinions of the Swedish
migration authorities that returning the author to Rwanda would not entail a violation of
article 7 of the Covenant.
4.4
The State party further argues that the author has not plausibly demonstrated that he
is a national of any country other than Rwanda. The State party explains that the author
presented two documents with different information: a voting card as an identification
document for the Democratic Republic of the Congo and a passport from Rwanda. It
submits that a Congolese passport was never presented to the authorities of Sweden. The
voting card could have been manipulated, which gives it a low probative value. However,
the Rwandan passport is genuine and establishes that the author was born in Kinazi
Ruhango, Rwanda, on 5 September 1989. The State party also notes that during the
Migration Agency’s assessment, the author stated that his date of birth had been changed in
his Rwandan passport because no one under 21 would be allowed to apply for a scholarship
in the United States. When the author was later asked to explain why someone needed to
change his date of birth, he answered that M23 had been severely criticized for recruiting
young people. The Migration Agency questioned whether a rebel group such as M23 would
be concerned with the age of their recruits or with receiving international criticism on such
an issue. The State party therefore concludes that, according to the information and
documentation available, the author is from Rwanda.
4.5
Finally, the State party considers that the present communication reveals no
violation of the Covenant. The Swedish migration authorities have emphasized that the
standard of proof cannot be set too high for claims concerning risk of persecution, as it is
rarely possible to present solid evidence in this regard. However, an asylum seeker’s
account needs to be deemed plausible and credible, and he or she has to make an honest
attempt to substantiate his or her account.
4.6
In this regard, the State party recalls the arguments of the Swedish migration
authorities for denying the author’s request for asylum:
(a)
The documents submitted by the author have low probative value;
(b)
Some of the submitted documents contain contradictory information;
(c)
The author submitted articles showing that the M23 rebel group, which was
previously considered to have been quashed, was recruiting soldiers in Rwanda and Uganda
in early 2014. These articles cannot, however, be considered to substantiate per se that the
complainant would face an individual and real threat upon return to Rwanda;
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