Date of judgement: 10 May 2012
Court: European Court of Human Rights
Citation(s): A.L. v. Austria, Appl. No. 7788/11, Council of Europe: European Court of Human Rights, 10 May 2012
Short summary
The European Court of Human Rights (ECtHR) reiterated the obligation of Contracting States to protect individuals from deportation which would place them at risk of treatment contrary to Art. 3 of the European Convention on Human Rights (prohibition of torture or to inhuman or degrading treatment or punishment), noting that Contracting States retained the right to control the entry and expulsion of aliens and that there was no obligation to grant political asylum. The ECtHR stressed that to have an indication as to whether an expulsion would violate Art. 3, from now on, an assessment of the situation in the country would have to be carried out, as the historical situation would offer little more than some help towards understanding the present conditions.
Summary by: Yusuf Lahham
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Weight of decision
The decision handed down by the ECtHR bears significant weight upon the interpretation of Art. 3 of the European Convention on Human Rights (ECHR).
Key facts
A Togolese national (“the applicant”) brought a case against the Republic of Austria seeking to overturn the decisions of the Federal Asylum Office and the Asylum Court in denying him asylum claim and ordering his return to Togo. As a member of the prominent opposition political party, Union des Forces de Changement (UFC), the applicant alleged that upon his return, he would face a risk of being subjected to treatment contrary to Art. 3.
In addition to this, he claimed that he had been threatened by soldiers in Togo during protests organised in a camp for flood victims due the unequal distribution of relief. The applicant further claimed that another Togolese national (“M.A”) had been granted asylum, relying on very similar evidence to that which had been put forward in his application. He argued that on the basis of M.A’s application result, he too should be granted asylum.
Previous instances
On 6 July 2009, the applicant’s request for asylum and subsidiary protection was denied by the Federal Asylum Office on the basis that his submission of fear and persecution was not credible and appeared to be a fabrication around what had really happened. The Office noted that parliamentary elections had taken place in 2007, with the UFC winning 27 seats, and that although Togo could not be considered a representative democracy, opposition parties were generally free to act. The Office went on to conclude that whilst the applicant had been truthful regarding his account of the flood and the tensions between soldiers within the flood victim camp, the alleged threats and the applicant’s subsequent fear was contradictory to the applicant’s statements.
In light of the above, the Office rejected the application for asylum and subsidiary protection on the grounds that the persecution awaiting the applicant in Togo was nothing more than speculation on his part, and that there would be no risk of persecution as recognised under Art. 1(A)(2) of the 1951 United Nations Convention Relating to the Status of Refugees.
On 29th April 2010, the Asylum Court held a hearing to address the applicant’s appeal, which was based upon the following grounds: that he was unaware of the possibility of submitting more than three pieces of evidence, he had issues understanding the interpreter and as such had not given a full account of police violence towards him at the camp, that members of the UFC were still subject to persecution notwithstanding the 2007 parliamentary elections, and that M.A, another organiser of the demonstrations had been granted asylum. The Court held that the applicant’s statements were contradictory and not due to any translation errors. It was also found that the evidence put forward appeared to be fabricated and that no actual violence towards his person had occurred at the camp. The court ordered his expulsion to Togo, and dismissed his claim.
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