In November 2015 Reza and his older brother Mehran arrived in Freedonia. Reza applied for asylum on 1 November 2015 and Mehran applied for asylum in 4 November 2015. They have two younger sisters who live in a foster home in Germany. Their parents died in a car accident in Afghanistan in 2012.

In their asylum requests they stated that they belong to the Hazara minority and grew up in the Kunduz Province in Afghanistan. After the death of their parents, Members of Taliban forces had repeatedly approached them wanting Mehran to become a suicide bomber and Reza to join their forces. They had refused and feared revenge as punishment for their refusal. In June 2013, they decided to flee to Turkey where Reza worked to gather money so that they could continue to Europe. They have no close relatives left in Afghanistan.

The two brothers did not support their identity with any documentation such as passport, ID-card or birth certificate. Reza claimed to be born on 2 October 2001 and Mehran claimed to be born on 6 February 1999. Since they were allegedly both minors, the Housing Section of the Migration Board of Freedonia temporarily placed the brothers together in a foster family in Small Town, a middle-sized town in the remote mountain area of Freedonia, awaiting the decision on the request for asylum from the Residence Permit Section of the Migration Board.

Mehran was born with a degenerative retinal disease that made him severely visually impaired. The disease could not be cured and his sight could not be improved but his condition could deteriorate. Since his visual disease had not been diagnosed before, the information that there is currently no cure for his disease was a big disappointment to the two brothers. These conclusions were supported by medical records, all dated in December 2016, from three different physicians in Freedonia who had treated Mehran. Mehran also has a history of psychological disorders which have not been properly documented.

Reza started school in Small Town in January 2016. Since the regular school did not offer necessary tools and support for visual impaired students, Mehran was offered schooling for visually impaired which started after the summer holidays in 2016. According to Freedonian legislation, school shall if reasonable be provided for any minor staying on its territory.

On 6 February 2017, the Housing Section of the Migration Board considered that Mehran had turned 18. It found that reaching the age of full legal responsibility entailed that he should no longer be placed in a foster family. It was therefore decided, contrary to the recommendation of the social worker in charge of the brothers’ housing situation, that Mehran be placed in a housing adapted for visually impaired in Freedonia City. When Mehran was informed of this decision, he tried to commit suicide by throwing himself in front of a car.

Mehran appealed the decision to change his housing arguing that due to his disabilities he needed substantial care and treatment. He maintained that he had been depended on his brother all his life and was not able to live on his own although, thanks to the special school he attended, he had for the first time in his life gained some independence from his brother. His brother had not only supported him on a practical level but has also been key from preventing his mental health to deteriorate.

On 27 April 2017, the Administrative Court of Small Town County rejected the appeal with the motivation that his current needs did not meet the legal requirements in the Social Services Act which requires a substantial need for care and treatment necessary to remain in a foster home after the age of 18. Mehran appealed to the Supreme Administrative Court which refused leave to appeal on 8 June 2017. Mehran was subsequently moved to his new housing and his schooling in Small Town was consequently interrupted.

On 27 December 2017, the Residence Permit Section of the Migration Board rejected both Mehran’s and Reza’s requests for asylum. Since their age had not been supported by any documents, Mehran and Reza agreed to undergo medical and psychiatric exams. Based on these exams and the opinion of the social worker that has been handling their housing and schooling, it established that there was no reason to doubt the birthdates stated by the brothers.

The Board further found no reason to doubt the fact that their parents had died in a car accident. Regarding the alleged pressure and threats from Talibans, the Board found that their stories correlated with reports from the region that minors without close grown-up relatives are a group exposed to particular risk of such pressure and threats from Talibans. However, Mehran is no longer a minor and is thus no longer particularly vulnerable. Furthermore, since Reza now has a grown-up relative, i.e. his older brother, that can support him in Afghanistan, he is also no longer part of the particularly exposed group. The Board therefore concluded that neither Mehran nor Reza should be considered as refugees under the 1951 Convention and 1967 Protocol Relating to the Status of Refugees (Refugee Convention), that they do not risk treatment contrary to Article 3 of the European Convention on Human Rights and Fundamental Freedoms (ECHR) and that there a no other grounds to grant them a residence permit in Freedonia.

Two days after receiving the decision, on 5 January 2018, Mehran committed suicide.

A social worker who had been engaged in finding an appropriate school for Mehran was very upset with the turn of events and decided to leak the case in closed Facebook group active to support asylum seekers in Freedonia. Many journalists were part of this Facebook group.

One journalist at the Freedonia Today, Freedonia’s largest daily newspaper, contacted Reza and with his permission got permission to see the case-files with the Migration Authority. A few days later, on 11 January 2018, the Director of the Migration Board personally called Reza’s lawyer to inform that the Migration reviewed the decision regarding Reza’s residence permit on its own motion.

It maintained that the ethnic group of Hazaras were not, at this point in time, at particular risk of persecution. There was thus no ground to grant residence permit in line with the Refugee Convention. However, since his brother Mehran was no longer alive and Reza therefore no longer had any grown-up relative in Afghanistan, he now belonged to a particularly exposed group and should thus be granted a permanent residence permit in Freedonia in line with Article 3 of the ECHR.

Freedonia Today wrote a big article about Mehran’s and Reza’s story. This triggered a viral effect and his story was widely spread and Reza appeared in a number of TV programs, newspapers as well as a TV and Radio Pods. During a few intensive weeks Reza had more or less daily interviews with the media. There was also a TV team filming most of Mehran’s funeral.

Furthermore, the Migration Board initiated an internal investigation that, on 6 February 2018, concluded that Mehran health condition both his visual impairment and his psychological health were not sufficiently investigated and considered in the decision-making process. In fact, reports about Afghanistan highlight people with disabilities as well as people with psychological disorders as particularly vulnerable groups in Afghanistan.

Strengthened by the support he has received after the media coverage, Reza has decided that he wants to hold Freedonia responsible for the suicide of his brother. ”I miss my brother every day. We had been through so much together. Before the decision that we cannot stay in the country, my brother had a shred of hope. The decision took that shred of hope away from him. I am convinced that it triggered his suicide. Their mistake was about my brother’s life. It’s not enough to admit a mistake. It’s about one person’s life. If my brother wouldn’t have taken his own life, they would never have noticed the mistake.”, he says to Freedonia Today.

After consulting several lawyers, he has concluded that there are no available remedies in Freedonia and that the remaining option is to have his case tried by the European Court of Human Rights.

The State of Freedonia does not claim that Reza should have exhausted any domestic remedies before turning to the European Court of Human Rights. However, the State argues that the case should nevertheless be declare inadmissible alternatively that the Court should finds no violation of the ECHR.