CCPR/C/114/D/2389/2014
account the asylum seeker’s explanations regarding the inconsistencies, his particular
situation, including cultural differences, age and health, and, in case of doubt about the
asylum seeker’s credibility, the board assesses the extent to which the principle of the
benefit of the doubt should be applied.
4.6
The State party argues that the refugee appeals board thoroughly reviewed the
author’s case and found that he had failed to establish that there were substantial grounds
for believing that he would be at risk of being subject to persecution or asylum-relevant
abuse if returned to the Islamic Republic of Iran. The State party notes that the author has
not provided the Committee with any new essential information or views on his
circumstances beyond those already relied upon in the refugee appeals board decision of 18
March 2014. The State party considers that the author is trying to use the Committee as an
appellate body to have the factual circumstances advocated in support of his claim for
asylum reassessed by the Committee.
4.7
The State party notes that there are no grounds for doubting the assessment made by
the refugee appeals board that there is no available information that the author would be at
risk of abuse constituting a breach of article 7 of the Covenant if he is returned to the
Islamic Republic of Iran. The State party refers to two reports15 according to which
formerly active opponents of the Iranian regime, including members of the Mujaheddin
e Khalq organization, have voluntarily returned from Iraq to the Islamic Republic of Iran.
The State party cites other sources quoted in the reports indicating that Iranian Kurdish
political activists who used to live in Kurdish Northern Iraq went back to the Islamic
Republic of Iran and that, in most of the cases, after a period of investigation by the Iranian
authorities, including sometimes imprisonment, they were able to have a normal life.
Furthermore, a small group of children of refugees who had lived in the Kurdish region in
Iraq for three decades before returning to the Islamic Republic of Iran were registered
without problems and without being exposed to any risk. At the same time, sources also
indicated that refugees from Al-Tash with political affiliations who returned to the Islamic
Republic of Iran should expect problems. The State party informs the Committee that the
refugee appeals board was aware that several sources in the available background
information referred to the fact that Iranian nationals from the Al-Tash and Barika refugee
camps may expect to become object of general attention of the Iranian authorities if
returned there. However, the State party considers that becoming the object of general
attention of the Iranian authorities is not sufficient to substantiate a real risk of being
subject to torture or ill-treatment.
4.8
Based on an overall assessment of the author’s specific circumstances and the
relevant background material, the State party concludes that the fact that the author was
born and raised in the Al-Tash refugee camp and that he later stayed at the Barika refugee
camp does not in itself entail that the author will be at a particular risk of being subject to
treatment contrary to article 7 of the Covenant. This applies even if the author may become
an object of general attention by the authorities if returned to the Islamic Republic of Iran.
The State party notes that there is no available information that Iranian nationals from the
Al-Tash or Barika refugee camps have been subjected to abuse by the Iranian authorities
after their return to the Islamic Republic of Iran.
15
Danish Immigration Service, Landinfo and the Danish Refugee Council, Iran: On Conversion to
Christianity, Issues concerning Kurds and post-2009 election protestors as well as legal issues and
exit procedures, 2013; and Danish Immigration Services and the Danish Refugee Council, Iranian
Kurds: On conditions for Iranian Kurdish Parties in Iran and the Kurdish region in Iraq, Activities in
the Kurdish Area of Iran, Conditions in Border Area and Situation of Returnees from the Kurdish
region in Iraq to Iran, 30 May to 9 June 2013.
7