CCPR/C/114/D/2288/2013
threatened her when they were imprisoned; she had not received any other threats from that
person because she had changed her telephone number; and Mr. P.B. and Ms. B.O. had
relatives in Lagos and Benin City, Nigeria, who the author had met several times prior to
her departure from Nigeria. Furthermore, in Nigeria, she could not report threats to the
authorities since they were corrupt and could be bribed to look for her. Finally, she argued
that she could not live in any other part of Nigeria but Lagos or Benin City because of the
ongoing fighting between Christians and Muslims in Nigeria.
2.7
On 4 August 2011, the Danish Immigration Service rejected the author’s application
for asylum pursuant to section 7 of the Aliens Act. The author appealed the decision before
the Danish Refugee Appeals Board.
2.8
On 29 December 2011, the author gave birth to a baby. The baby’s father is also a
former asylum seeker in Denmark.
2.9
On 15 March 2012, the Appeals Board upheld the Immigration Service decision of
4 August 2011. The Appeals Board reviewed the author’s accounts and found that she was
not at any real risk of persecution in Nigeria. It pointed out that, although she claimed that
she had received a death threat from Mr. P.B.’s brother on one occasion, she had not
provided any detailed information and had failed to render probable that he wanted to or
was able to carry out his threat. The Appeals Board also pointed out that reports1 on the
human rights situation in Nigeria indicated that the Nigerian authorities were actively
fighting against human trafficking and its consequences. It provided the author with a list of
organizations in Nigeria that assisted victims of human trafficking and prostitution. The
Appeals Board also noted that the author had declared that she had never been in conflict
with the authorities in Nigeria, nor detained, arrested, charged or sentenced, nor
experienced any house searches, nor been a member of a political or religious party or
organization, nor had she participated in any activities or demonstrations organized by
them.
2.10 On 13 December 2012, the author requested the Appeals Board to re-open her
asylum proceedings. She claimed that she had become highly profiled since a Danish
television channel had discussed her asylum proceedings in a televised broadcast on 12
December 2012. She felt that she would be at risk of persecution by the human trafficking
network in Nigeria and that the Appeals Board decision of 15 March 2012 had failed to
consider the protection she needed as a witness in a case of human trafficking before the
judicial authority of Denmark. She further submitted that other victims of human trafficking
had been granted international protection in other Nordic countries.
2.11 On 3 April 2013, the Refugee Appeals Board refused to re-open the author’s case
and ordered her to leave the country voluntarily within the deadline established by its
decision of 15 March 2012. The Appeals Board considered that her request did not provide
significant new information for it to re-examine her case. It also pointed out that: her
allegation about a human trafficking network in Nigeria lacked details and was vague; she
was threatened by telephone on only one occasion by Mr. P.B.’s brother; there was no
information about reprisals against her family; and there was no information that she had
been threatened again, even after Mr. P.B. and Ms. B.O. had been released from prison in
March 2011, nor about how she would be at risk of persecution by human traffickers either
in Nigeria or in Denmark. The Appeals Board also noted that, according to different
reports, the Nigerian authorities had set up measures to fight against human trafficking and
that the National Agency for the Prohibition of Trafficking in Persons (NAPTIP) and non1
4
The authorities referred to United States of America, Department of State, Trafficking in Persons
Report, 10th edition (14 June 2010); and the Danish Immigration Service report on its fact-finding
mission to Nigeria (7 April 2009).