Media coverage on dismissed Iranian asylum seekers case

Concerning S.F.F vs Denmark for violation of articles 6, 7, 13 and 14 of CCPR.
The following case has been decided. It was found by the Committee that the authors rights would not be violated if deported.

The author is born in Iran but fled in 1998. He applied for asylum because he was wanted by authorities in connection with a case involving the smuggling of weapons to the Iranian embassy in Damascus. He was rejected asylum since it was decided that he would not be in risk of persecution on return to Iran. He then lived as a rejected asylum seeker in Denmark for several years.

Due to his desperate situation he participated in a hunger strike in Christiansborg Palace Square together with other rejected asylum seekers in Denmark, and this created great media attention. It is argued that the mere fact that the applicant has been shown on a nationwide news broadcast on TV has profiled him to such an extent that there is a high degree of certainty that the applicant is registered by representatives of the Iranian embassy in Denmark or representatives related thereto.
Consequently his asylum case was reopened in 2007 due to his new asylum motive. Even though he was in newspapers and television, the Refugee Board nevertheless rejected his claim again stating that “the applicant has not been a member of political parties or organisations or otherwise been politically active”. He converted to Christianity in 2013, but the new asylum motive was rejected, and a complaint sent to CCPR.

22. July 2021

CCPR 2494/2014
  • Decision: 14. March 2019
  • Comm: Human Rights