Asylum and Migration Human Rights
European Court: Sweden has no right to return Iranian Christian refugee
The European Court of Human Rights ruled on Wednesday, March 29, that the Swedish government must ensure that the risks posed to newly converted Iranian Christians are fairly assessed by European governments before rejecting their asylum applications and returning them to Iran.
According to the ruling of the Supreme Court of the European Court of Human Rights, before deporting a man who converted to Christianity in Sweden and faced torture, the Swedish government must conduct a fair assessment of how his life would be at risk if he were returned to Iran.
In Iran, which is ranked the ninth worst country in the world for persecuting Christians, apostasy from Islam is a crime punishable by death.
Despite the Swedish Migration Agency rejecting the asylum application of this convert from Islam in 2010 without a fair assessment of the risks to him, the European Court of Justice has now ordered the Swedish government to re-examine his case and fully analyze the consequences of his conversion to Islam in Iran.
The court also ruled that Sweden would be in violation of the European Convention on Human Rights if it failed to fairly assess the risks to the new Christian before sending him back to his homeland.
“Unfortunately, the existing anti-apostasy laws in Iran pose a direct threat to those who have converted to Christianity, and we must ensure that their right to life is fully protected,” said Paul Coleman, senior counsel and deputy director of the International Union for the Defense of Freedom, in a statement. “We welcome this court’s decision because it takes into account the views of the International Union for the Defense of Freedom and makes clear that returning this person to Iran without a proper assessment of the risks and consequences he will face as a Christian would conflict with the applicant’s right to life and his right to protection from torture,” he said.
The decision of the court reversed a lower court decision in 2014 that ruled that Sweden’s rejection of the man’s asylum application did not violate the European Convention on Human Rights. At the time, the court believed that there was no serious risk or threat to the convert if he returned to his country, as Iranian authorities were not yet aware of his conversion to Christianity.
“The first court ruling ignores the potentially deadly consequences of converting from Islam to Christianity in Iran, as well as previous court decisions on Iranian converts that were in their favor,” Robert Clark, advocacy director for the International Union for the Defense of Freedom in Europe, said in a statement.
Following the lower court's ruling, a number of human rights groups, including the International Union for the Defense of Freedom, the Jubilee Campaign, and the European Center for Law and Justice, issued a brief statement challenging the court's claim that there was no risk to the man if he were returned to Iran.
“Those who convert to Christianity, if recognized by the Iranian government, at the very least often suffer significant harm or even interference with liberty through deprivation of liberty, rape, and persistent harassment,” the letter, archived by the European Center for Law and Justice, states. “At the very least, the individual can face severe ill-treatment and even death.”
The letter continued: "Despite the Iranian government's claims that its laws respect and recognize the Christian community, the Iranian Christian community faces systematic and systematic persecution and discrimination. The European Center for Law and Justice, without addressing the specifics of this case, is of the opinion that returning a genuine Christian to Iran would expose him to persecution, which is contrary to Article 3 of the European Convention on Human Rights."
Although Christianity is severely repressed in Iran, the house church movement is rapidly expanding within the country, with around 450,000 active members.
“This is not an anti-Iran movement, it is an Iranian movement,” a source close to the Iranian house church movement told The Christian Post in March. “This is a movement of countless Muslims turning to Christ.”
Because Iran's religious watchdog has quickly cracked down on house churches and arrested hundreds of participants, the activities of these churches must be conducted secretly, quietly, and in small groups.
