A Pakistani national from Bara Tehsil, Khyber District (Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Province), applied for international protection in Latvia on 14 November 2025 at a border guard post. He claimed that a group, not identified in the judgment, had extorted money from him and demanded that he fight against the Government of Pakistan.

Finding that the applicant had not advanced any grounds capable of justifying international protection, his application was examined under the accelerated procedure. On 17 June 2026, the Office of Citizenship and Migration Affairs (OCMA) rejected the application, finding that the applicant had failed to identify any individual circumstances demonstrating a well-founded fear of persecution on a Convention ground. The OCMA further noted that, although clashes between Pakistani government forces and terrorist groups occur near the Afghan border, the applicant had not alleged any specific threat arising from those clashes. It therefore concluded that there were no grounds for finding that he would face serious harm upon return to Pakistan.

The applicant appealed the decision before the Riga District Administrative Court, which upheld the OCMA's refusal to grant refugee status, agreeing that the applicant's account of the alleged persecution was general in nature and lacked sufficient individualised detail.

With regard to subsidiary protection, the court relied on the EUAA's COI Query - Pakistan: Security Situation in Khyber District (March 2026) to assess whether the applicant would face serious and individual threats as a civilian by reason of indiscriminate violence in the context of an international or internal armed conflict. The court observed that the security situation in the Khyber District is affected not only by the activities of armed groups but also by military escalation between Pakistan and Afghanistan, including cross-border air strikes, border clashes, and military operations. Based on the EUAA report, the court noted that, although the security situation in the district deteriorated during 2025 and early 2026, with continuing armed incidents, counter-terrorism operations, and population displacement, residents were relocating to areas where the security situation was more stable. The court therefore confirmed the OCMA's decision to refuse both refugee status and subsidiary protection.