Advance unedited version CAT/C/63/D/744/2016 country of origin information, to which reference has been made by the Swedish Migration Agency in its decision of 25 December 2013, Iranian refugees are provided with an Iraqi ID card and a residence permit.26 The UNHCR has also issued a certificate to all Iranian refugees in the KRI with which the refugees are free to travel throughout Iraq. In addition to ID cards, Iranian refugees in Iraq hold a Public Distribution System (the food ration distribution system) card. According to that information, the cards held by Iranian refugees vary between different refugee camps, but there is no indication that some Iranian refugees would not having received at least one of the abovementioned cards. The Migration Agency also noted in its decision that it has been possible for Iranian citizens to receive Iraqi ID cards and Iraqi citizenship following long residence in the country.27 Nonetheless, in that case, the complainant had, inter alia, submitted an ID card issued by the KDPI in Iraq, membership cards of the KDPI and certificates of studies from the KDPI, in support of his identity. As noted by the Migration Agency in the aforementioned decision, the ID card is of a simple nature as it lacks a data chip, fingerprints, hologram, security features or any other element that might guarantee its authenticity. Nor is the document issued by a competent authority. According to the Migration Agency, the complainant has neither proved nor plausibly demonstrated his identity through the documents he submitted, but they have been considered as evidence of his residence in Iraq. The State party shares the assessments made by the Migration Agency and by the Migration Court in respect of the complainant’s identity and also the fact that his grounds for protection should be assessed in relation to Iraq, a country where the complainant has resided throughout his life. 4.13 As to the allegations that the complainant risks being subjected to torture by the Iranian authorities, which can easily find him in Iraq due to his and his family’s membership of KDPI, the State party first notes that the complainant has not been subjected to any specific or personal threat by the Iranian regime. The State party however notes the complainant’s argument that he has been indirectly subjected to a threat since other KDPI members who left the refugee facility have been murdered by Iranian agents and terrorist organisations linked to the Iranian regime. Secondly, even though there is no reason to question that the complainant is a member of the KDPI, this does not alone entail that he risks treatment constituting grounds for protection upon return to Iraq. Thirdly, when witnesses heard by the Migration Court declared that the complainant and his family were known to the authorities in Iran due to the paternal grandfather’s and the father’s political activities, and that the family was also known among active members of the KDPI in Iraq due to their longstanding political activities, the Migration Court did not contest the credibility of that information, but noted that the witnesses only described a threat to party members in Iraq in general terms. Finally, the complainant was born and grew up in the Iraqi Kurdistan, and attended school in Iraq for a total of fourteen years. His parents and siblings still reside in Iraq and his family have on several occasions been offered refugee status in Iraq by UNHCR, but have refused. The Migration Court found that nothing had emerged in the case to support the complainant’s claim that he does not have a right to remain in Iraq. The State party shares the Migration Court’s conclusion that the complainant has not plausibly demonstrated that he is in need of protection in Iraq on the ground that he does not have a legal right to remain in the country. 4.14 The State party further notes that the complainant, during the domestic asylum proceedings, has not stated in what way he has been personally subjected to threat by representatives of the Iranian authorities, but simply referred to a threat of persecution based on his engagement within the party. He was also not able to describe his duties within the party. Moreover, he admitted that he has never been convicted of a crime, arrested or detained. He has thus not been subjected to any kind of persecution on the part of the authorities. The State party therefore agrees with the conclusion of the domestic authorities that the complainant has not sufficiently demonstrated that his fear of being subjected to treatment that would constitute grounds for protection, in the form of persecution for his political views, is well-founded. 26 27 Iranian Kurdish Refugees in the Kurdistan Region of Iraq (KRI) Report, cited above. The State party refers to Concerning Iranian citizens who are long-term residents of Northern Iraq Report, without providing further details. 9

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