The ECtHR has held, unanimously, that the removal from Switzerland to Afghanistan of an Afghan Muslim of Hazara ethnicity who had converted to Christianity would violate his rights under Article 3 ECHR (inhuman or degrading treatment or punishment).

Background

In AA v Switzerland [2019] ECHR (No 32218/17) [in French], the applicant had applied for asylum in Switzerland in 2014. His claim was that he had left Afghanistan because of the lack of security there and that after arriving in Swizterland he had converted from Islam to Christianity. The State Secretariat for Migration (SEM) rejected his application and the Federal Administrative Court confirmed the SEM’s decision on the credibility of his grounds for claiming asylum grounds – but the court also found that his religious conversion in Switzerland had been genuine. Continue reading →