B.B., a national of Afghanistan and an ethnic Hazara, requested asylum in Sweden on 11 September 2015 as an unaccompanied minor. He alleged that he would be subjected to violence by the Taliban and Islamic State in Iraq and the Levant (ISIL) because he is a Shia Muslim, or would be forcibly recruited by ISIL if returned to Afghanistan. His parents also applied for asylum in Sweden but subsequently withdrew their applications and returned to Afghanistan to care for B.B.'s grandfather. On 15 July 2016, the applicant's and his brother's asylum applications were rejected by the Migration Board. It was considered that Mazar-e-Sharif in Afghanistan, was their place of origin and that there was no evidence that they would be recruited by ISIL upon their return, and that they should not be separated from their parents, who wished to return to Afghanistan. The decision was appealed unsuccessfully to the Migration Court and to the Migration Court of Appeal. At the same time, a criminal procedure was open again the parents, who were convicted of abuse against the brothers and before the sentence was enforced the parents left the house and threatened to kill the applicant if he returned to Afghanistan as he had reported the abuse to the police. A subsequent application in light of the new circumstances concerning the parents and the fact that the applicant had also converted from Islam to Christianity was dismissed by the Swedish authorities. 

Before the Human Rights Committee (HRC), the applicant claimed that his deportation to Afghanistan would violate his rights under Articles 6 and 7 of the Covenant.

The HRC considered that Sweden failed to adequately assess the author’s real, personal and foreseeable risk of returning to Afghanistan, taking into account his father’s alleged threats of revenge and his trauma as a result of parental abuse. The Committee concluded that his removal to Afghanistan would constitute a violation of Articles 6 and 7 of the Covenant.