Citation: 2019 RLLR 186
Tribunal: Refugee Protection Division
Date of Decision: August 1, 2019
Panel: Yonatan Rozenszajn
Counsel for the Claimant(s): Amro Hayek
Country: Egypt
RPD Number: TB8-32362
Associated RPD Number(s): N/A
ATIP Number: A-2020-00518
ATIP Pages: 000802-000808
REASONS FOR DECISION
INTRODUCTION
[1] These are the reasons for the decision in the claim of XXXX XXXX XXXX XXXX XXXX (the “claimant”), who claims to be a citizen of Egypt, and is claiming refugee protection pursuant to sections 96 and 97(1) of the Immigration and Refugee Protection Act.
[2] In rendering my reasons, I have considered and applied the Chairperson’s Guidelines on Women Refugee Claimants Fearing Gender-Related Persecution.
[3] Written submissions were received from claimant’s counsel June 18, 2019 which I duly considered.1 On June 21, 2019, the claimant filed a good colour copy of her IRCC internet portal page.2 The Minister filed the claimant’s visa application to Canada as well as a colour copy of her passport in response to the Board’s post hearing requests.3
ALLEGATIONS
[4] The claimant’s allegations are set out in her Basis of Claim form (“BOC”).4 She amended her narrative on two other occasions.5 In summary, the claimant alleges that since childhood she was interested in Christianity. She alleges that around the age of 35, she started attending several Sunday church services when she was in Europe on routine business trips through her Europecar employer where numerous Christians worked. She alleges that she visited Canada in XXXX and XXXX 2016, attending church on both occasions and learning about Christianity. She alleges that she returned to Egypt and told her parents about her beliefs and Christianity. They responded badly and got her to resign from Europecar. The fact of her Christian beliefs became known and she started receiving threats and having garbage thrown at her by neighbours. She fled to Canada in XXXX 2018. After extending her visa once, she learned that her case may be eligible for refugee protection in Canada she made arrangement to commence a claim in November 2018.
DETERMINATION
[5] I find that the claimant is a Convention refugee as she has established a serious possibility of persecution on account of religion.
ANALYSIS
[6] The determinative issue in this case is whether the claimant provided sufficient credible evidence to establish the basis of her claim, namely the genuineness of her alleged conversion to Christianity from Islam.
Identity – personal and national
[7] The claimant’s identity as a national of Egypt has been established, on a balance of probabilities, by a valid Arab Republic of Egypt passport6 that was seized by the referring IRCC (formerly CIC) office.
Identity—religious
[8] The claimant has also established her identity as a convert from Islam to Christianity by her testimony and by way of her personal documentation, including the following: a national identity card which list her religion as Muslim,7 a baptism certificate8; and various photographs depicting the claimant in church.9
Credibility
[9] The claimant was generally consistent in her allegations and testimony. It is beyond controversy that she has in fact been baptised in 2018 in Canada.
[10] The main issue was her multiple returns from Europe, USA and even Canada, even after she started attending churches and considered herself Christian. She explained that she was not aware that her situation qualified for asylum and she wanted to resume her teaching at the university. She also wanted to confront her parents with her new faith after the XXXX 2016 to Canada because that was personally important to her.
[11] I find her explanations reasonable in the circumstances because the claimant is a single, highly educated woman in Egypt that lives with her parents. Keeping cultural norms in mind and the Gender Guidelines, it is not unreasonable to expect that she may want to share this important aspect of her identity with her parents especially since it is clearly inferable that they supported her educational, professional and personal life choices up to that point. I also find that her desire to return and teach is intrinsically tied to her identity as an educated person. Lastly, while the claimant is fairly sophisticated, it is understandable that she was not sure whether her case would qualify for asylum until recently because her allegations of past persecution are on their face quite modest.
[12] Being on the receiving end of threats, when there is no evidence of a serious possibility of those threats materializing into actual violence does not amount to persecution. Neither is having garbage thrown at occasionally while travelling in the neighbourhood amount to persecution when one balances the fact that the claimant was otherwise gainfully employed at the least in the immediate past.
[13] Accordingly, I decline to draw an adverse inference as to the credibility of the claimant from her returns to Egypt and failure to claim protection in the past.
[14] The claimant filed post-hearing documentation that appears to show that she was thinking in 2016 to immigrate to Canada as a skilled worker. I accept counsel’s submissions that she did not meet the benchmark completely due to lack of testing for English. However, this evidence also indicates that in other respects she met the benchmarks and her application may very well have been approved in the end. However, I find that I accept the claimant’s testimony that she declined to follow up with this application because it would have taken too long and she started getting worried for her safety, mainly due to her father’s advice that people her in position could get into trouble in Egypt. I decline to draw an adverse inference as to the claimant’s general credibility from her failure to follow up with the skilled worker application. I find that in fact this application shows that the claimant was in fact trying to leave Egypt permanently which supports her overall claim to be in a state of general suffering due to religious discrimination by society.
[15] While her past conduct does raise some concerns, I find that I ultimately give the claimant the benefit of the doubt. The claimant was credible when it came to speaking about her religious knowledge and practices. There is an insufficient basis to question her honesty. I find that she has established the sincerity of her religious conversion to Christianity with sufficient credible evidence.
Serious risk of religious persecution on a forward looking basis
[16] While the claimant may appear to be able to maintain gainful employment in Egypt as a notorious Christian convert in the past, the country documentation evidence indicates that converts ultimate face an array of serious persecution including that “a convert to Christianity from Islam will have extreme difficulty dealing with officials and neighbours who have any idea of his or her decision.”10 Furthermore, “Muslim converts to Christianity are regularly harassed by government officials who view their actions as a social offence against Islam tantamount to treason.”11
[17] The documentation adds the following statements from one of its sources consulted:
Similarly, in correspondence sent to the Research Directorate, a board member of the Coptic Orthodox Church of Canada stated that authorities will attempt to dissuade someone from converting from Islam to Christianity and may arbitrarily imprison the person alongside “dangerous criminals” if they insist on converting.12
[18] The government frequently failed to prevent, investigate, or prosecute crimes targeting members of religious minority groups, which fostered a climate of impunity.
[19] Country documentation confirms that Christians continue to be targeted by Islamic militants, attacks against Copts take place throughout Egypt, and state authorities are slow to act.13
[20] In noting that various violent incidents against Christians took place in locations throughout the country, the panel also finds that there is not an area of the country where the claimant would be able to reside and safely participate in the community, and as such there is no internal flight alternative available to the claimant anywhere in Egypt.
[21] Counsel’s disclosure also establishes that converts are prevented from officially changing their designated religion assigned to her at birth, even if they seek a court order.14 This effectively prevents converts from integrating into the Christian community, which means they are still subject to Sharia law, they are not allowed to marry Christians and any foreign marriage of such a nature is not recognized and any children born from such a union would be assign a “Muslim” identity designation by default which cannot be changed.
[22] I find that all of these forms of discrimination, including the illegality of conversion per se in Egypt and risks of vigilante attacks, cumulatively amount to persecution on a forward looking basis in the claimant’s case. They also evidence a lack of state protection because this discrimination emanates from the state.
No state protection
[23] I find that the claimant has rebutted the presumption of state protection because the harm ultimately emanates from the state or societal elements that are tacitly supported by the state at least in so far as they seek to stop conversions and punish intransigent Christians converters who refuse to return to Islam.
No IFA
[24] I find that there is no viable IFA in Egypt for the claimant because there is no evidence that converts from Islam to Christianity are safe anywhere in the country.
CONCLUSION
[25] Based on the analysis above, I conclude that the claimant is a Convention refugee based on the ground of religion.
[26] She has a well-founded fear of persecution.
[27] Accordingly, I accept her claim.
(signed) YONATAN ROZENSZAJN
August 1, 2019
1 Exhibit 11.
2 Exhibit 12.
3 Exhibit 10 and 13.
4 Exhibit 2.
5 Exhibits 8 and 9.
6 Exhibit 1, package of information from the referring CBSA/CIC.
7 Exhibit 7
8 Ibid.
9 Exhibit 6.
10 Exhibit 3, National Documentation Package (NDP) for Egypt, 29 March 2019 version, item 12.7: Whether people who have converted from Islam to Christianity, particularly those converts who have been arrested, are able to obtain passports and leave the country (April 2010-November 2013). Immigration and Refugee Board of Canada. 27 November 2013. EGY104664.E.
11 Ibid.
12 Ibid.
13 Ibid., item 12.8: Situation of Coptic Christians, including treatment; state protection available (2014-May 2015). Immigration and Refugee Board of Canada. 8 May 2015. EGY105152.E.
14 Exhibit 5.