Switzerland 'ignored risks faced by Pakistani Christian in asylum case'

 Switzerland has been told to pay nearly €7,000 to a Christian convert from Islam because it failed to assess the risk to his life if he was sent back to Pakistan following an unsuccessful asylum claim.

A European court ruled that the authorities would violate the rights to life and to avoid torture or degrading treatment if they sent the man — identified only as M.A.M — back to Pakistan after seven years in Switzerland.

The man first claimed asylum in Switzerland in 2015 after claiming that a local family had tried to kill him following a land dispute in Pakistan.

He moved between different refugee centres in the Alpine nation and was baptised the following year after attending different Christian places of worship, according to a ruling by the European Court of Human Rights.

He was joined only by a pastor at his asylum hearing and did not have a lawyer throughout the asylum process, it said. His asylum request was turned down in 2018 and a series of appeals were thrown out before he appealed to the European court.

Christians, including converts, have been attacked in Pakistan and accused of blasphemy, a criminal offence that carries the death penalty. The court cited a British government document from 2021 that said that converts were likely to suffer “societal discrimination and harassment that … amounted to persecution”.

Christians represent 1.6 per cent of the Pakistani population, the second-largest religious minority in the country behind Hindus.

The British government report said there had been 16 convictions of Christians for blasphemy in Pakistan between 2001 and 2019. It said that in January 2021, 53 people were prison for their faith, including 31 Christians, with at least 11 sentenced to death.

The court, based in Strasbourg, France, said that the Swiss authorities “failed to conduct a sufficiently detailed examination of the situation of Christian converts and of the applicant’s personal situation concerning his conversion”.

The panel of seven judges ordered that the Swiss authorities pay the man €6,885 in costs and expenses.

The court ensures that members of the 46-state Council of Europe respect human rights enshrined in the European Convention on Human Rights.