CAT/C/65/D/811/2017 3.2 As a young man of age to perform military service and a rejected asylum seeker who fled his country illegally, the complainant would be automatically suspected of being an opponent of the regime and a deserter. He therefore has a risk profile that exposes him to punishment and persecution. He draws attention to the prevalence of gross and systematic human rights violations in Eritrea, in the light of which it is likely that he would face the risk of treatment contrary to article 3 of the Convention. 3.3 Furthermore, even if he were to survive the persecution suffered during his detention as a result of being returned, the complainant would no doubt be recruited by force by the army. In a recent case against Switzerland, the European Court of Human Rights granted interim measures that suspended the enforcement of the return to Eritrea,8 which implicitly demonstrates that, in the current situation, an Eritrean person thus expelled is at risk of treatment contrary to articles 3 and 4 of the Convention for the Protection of Human Rights and Fundamental Freedoms (European Convention on Human Rights). 3.4 The complainant then challenges the proceedings before the Federal Administrative Court. His financial situation prevented him from settling the legal fees in advance, and the Court did not take into account the fact that he had not been represented by counsel during the hearings. In addition, the Court considered that his statements relating to his call-up for military service and his departure from Eritrea were “particularly evasive, stereotypical and lacking in detail” and thus implausible. The complainant claims that he has given consistent and clear answers to a total of about 187 questions. He cannot be faulted for failing to provide details, especially as more than six years have elapsed between the facts and the hearings. 3.5 The complainant also takes issue with the fact that he was required to express himself in a language that was not his own. He completed his education in Bilen in a Bilenlanguage school. His ability to express himself in Tigrinya was not sufficient to enable him to describe his entire journey in a detailed and spontaneous manner. The Court simply automatically indicated that the complainant had attested to having understood the content of the minutes of the hearing by signing them but did not make reference to the fact that the complainant had said he was not fluent in Tigrinya. 3.6 As regards the doubts of the Court concerning the evidential value of the documents provided to prove his identity, the complainant recalls that he stated that he had never taken any steps to obtain an identity card in order to avoid being recruited by the administration for military service or taken into custody for desertion. The Swiss authorities could have taken measures to verify the genuineness of the documents9 rather than rule them out on the grounds that they could easily be forged. The complainant had explained in his appeal that he had requested his family to produce these documents in order to be able to prove his identity in Switzerland. The fact that they are rather recent in no way implies that they were forged. 3.7 With regard to the assertion of the State Secretariat for Migration that the complainant contradicted himself by stating once that he had been released and another time that he had escaped, the complainant recalls that the hearing was held in Tigrinya, a language that he has no command of. Therefore, it is possible that there had been a misunderstanding with the interpreter. 3.8 The complainant states that he described his journey, including the date of departure, duration and places travelled through before arriving in Kassala. The Secretariat asked merely two questions regarding the fact that he had not been stopped by the authorities during his flight. If the Secretariat considered that this point deserved further explanation, it should have asked additional questions. Furthermore, as public reports show, 10 the complainant does not have the profile of a person likely to obtain an exit visa from his 8 9 10 4 The complainant refers to the case of M.O. v. Switzerland, No. 41282/16, 20 June 2017. For example, the Court could have requested the Swiss consulate in Asmara to analyse them. European Asylum Support Office (EASO), EASO Country of Origin Information Report: Eritrea Country Focus (May 2015, https://coi.easo.europa.eu/administration/easo/PLib/EASO-EritreaCountryFocus_EN_May2015.pdf), which points out, inter alia, that the fulfilment of national service (or the legal exemption from it) is a precondition for the issuance of exit visas (p. 52). GE.19-01118