CAT/C/56/D/586/2014
4.14 The State party submits that the Migration Board and the migration courts are
specialized bodies with particular expertise in the field of asylum law and practice and
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. Accordingly, the State party holds that great weight must be attached to the
opinions of the Swedish migration authorities, as expressed in their rulings ordering the
expulsion of the complainants to the Russian Federation.
4.15 In addition, the State party submits that the complainants have claimed that
expelling them to the Russian Federation would be a violation of article 3 of the
Convention as they risk being subjected to treatment contrary to the rights of the
Convention upon return, mainly owing to accusations against the first complainant of
involvement in explosions in Grozny in August 2011 and the possession of illegal firearms
and explosives. The State party, like the migration authorities, considers that a number of
factors give cause to question the veracity of the complainants’ claim that they would risk
being subjected to torture in violation of article 3 of the Convention upon return to the
Russian Federation. The State party agrees with the assessment made by the Migration
Board and the Migration Court that the complainants’ accounts contain contradictory
information and conflict with generally known facts about the complainants’ country of
origin. The State party thus takes the view that the complainants have failed to provide a
credible account and will elaborate below on the circumstances of relevance to the
assessment of the complainants’ credibility in this regard.
4.16 Firstly, to support their identities, the complainants have submitted a military service
book belonging to the first complainant, a domestic passport belonging to the second
complainant and birth certificates belonging to the third, fourth and fifth complainants. The
State party agrees with the view of the Migration Board and the Migration Court that the
complainants have not plausibly established their identity by the above-mentioned
documents. As the Migration Board has noted, the first complainant’s military service book
is old, of a simple nature and contains no recent notes. Furthermore, the page in the second
complainant’s domestic passport, on which the Russian authorities register information on
whether and when an international passport or previous domestic passports has been issued,
is missing. The second complainant has not given a reasonable explanation as to why one
page is missing in her domestic passport. Furthermore, the third, fourth and fifth
complainants’ birth certificates are of a simple nature, with no photographs or verifiable
certificate. In this respect the State party shares the Migration Board’s view that it is likely
that the complainants have withheld information of significance for the asylum process.
4.17 In the light of these findings and with regard to the fact that the complainants’
account of their journey from Ingushetia to Sweden has been vague and lacking in details,
the State party, like the Migration Board, cannot rule out the possibility that the
complainants may have left the Russian Federation legally with their own international
passports and with approved visas for the Schengen area, or that they may have resided in
an area outside of Chechnya before departing for Sweden. Furthermore, although the
linguistic analysis indicates that the complainants originate from Chechnya, no
documentation has been provided to show where the complainants had their last place of
residence. Thus, the State party shares the view of the Migration Board that the
complainants may have resided in another part of the Russian Federation before travelling
to Sweden. Hence, the State party holds that, even if the complainants have plausibly
demonstrated that they are nationals of the Russian Federation, they have not plausibly
established that their last place of residence was in Chechnya.
4.18 Furthermore, the first and second complainants have claimed to belong to the
Mialkhiy group, whose members have been subject to discrimination and harassment by the
Russian authorities. The State party notes, however, that the complainants have not claimed
8