The District Court of The Hague, location Amsterdam, ruled on recently, in a case brought by mr. A.H. Hekman and mr. F.J. Hoppenbrouwer, that the Minister for Asylum and Migration had provided insufficient reasoning for deeming the conversion of an Iranian asylum seeker to be not credible.
The court did not follow the Minister’s position that the statements about the conversion were superficial and vague. Instead, it held that the applicant had given detailed and personal explanations regarding the motives for, and the process of, her conversion, as is also expected by the Immigration and Naturalisation Service (IND) according to Work Instruction 2022/3.
Furthermore, the court found that the Minister had conducted insufficient investigation into how the applicant intended to express her apostasy upon return to Iran. In doing so, the Minister should have taken into account how the apostasy had been expressed in the Netherlands.
The applicant’s medical issues were also not sufficiently considered by the Minister in assessing whether she could be expected to exercise restraint upon return to Iran.
Asylum procedures involving conversion and apostasy can be complex matters. If you have any questions about this topic or other asylum-related issues, please feel free to contact our office.
