1. Disclaimer: The factsin this essay are based on true events. This was written during my work at
AMERA in 2013. For confidentiality purpose- to protect the persons mentioned- all the namesof the
persons mentioned in the summary and referred to in the legal argument have been replaced by
generic names.
Closing Statement
John Doe
Mr. Doe is a refugee under the 1951 Convention on the basis of his imputed political opinion, as a
suspected supporter of government opponents, his Nuba ethnicity, as a member of the Nuba Tameen
tribe, and his membership to a particular social group as a victim of human and organ trafficking.
Moreover, Mr. Doe cannot be expected to return to Sudan due to events seriously disturbing public
order in his home region the Nuba Mountains, according to the 1969 OAU Convention.
I. Summary of the Claim
Mr. Doe was arrested and detained on 10 November 2011. He was targeted for being Doe as such,
which is evidenced by the questions he was asked upon arrest,including: “Are you John Doe?” He was
taken into a car and driven to a detention centre,where he arrived during the night. When pulled out of
the car,he was blindfolded and taken into a room and demanded to take off his clothes. He was forced
to stand naked as the officials splashed cold water at him. The next day, the officials interrogated him
and asked him whether he knew where his father was. Mr. Doe negated as he really was not aware of his
father’s whereabouts,yet he was still accused of withholding information and not cooperating with the
authorities. Due to this type of interrogation Mr. Doe was subjected to, he knew that his detention was
triggered by his father’s strong connection with the SPLM.
Mr. Doe was detained for 123 days. His experience in detention was cruel. He was raped many times by
the security officials and was tortured consistently. He was electrocuted and beaten severely with a
black stick. He was also pulled around from inappropriate and sensitive bodily areas.
X, one of the security officials at the prison, approached Mr. Doe and offered to help him escape prison,
but had only one condition; that he does not speak a word of it. When Mr. Doe was snuck out of
detention on 12 March 2011 he was informed that he is being trafficked to Egypt to undergo a kidney
removal surgery for a man whom is a 98% match to himself. They knew this, because the guards at the
prison used to regularly run blood tests on him. He was threatened not to disagree because if it were not
for X, Mr. Doe would still be either in prison or dead. Mr. Doe arrived in Egypt a few days after his
leave from the detention center in Sudan. Upon arrival, he was coerced into undergoing the surgery
because his perpetrator, X, had his mother detained back in Sudan and threatened that they would “do
more to her’ if he refused to undergo the surgery. On 16 March 2012, Mr. Doe underwent a kidney
removal surgery at Sheikh Zayed Hospital in 6 October City.
His life in Egypt since then has not found its way out of trouble yet. Mr. Doe continued to be harassed
by Sudanese people, including a man whom he met at work, who claimed to have known him from
prison back in Sudan. He wanted to engage in a sexual relation with Mr. Doe and threatened that if he
resisted he would tell his family about his story in detention. Thus, Mr. Doe was forced to have sex with
this man for a couple of months until he managed to find another job and moved to Nasr City, where the
man would be unable to find him. Before this incident, when Mr. Doe was working in a stationary shop
in downtown, he was again approached by Sudanese Officer X and a couple of other Sudanese men,
when he was taken to an empty cinema theatre in downtown to forcibly engage in sexual intercourse
with them.
Mr. Doe has been finding it very difficult to recover from his traumatic experiences and has been
suffering from severe post-traumatic-stress-disorder, which led him to attempt to commit suicide in

2. 2012. He was saved by his friend, and was transferred to the psychiatric hospital called Demerdash for
treatment. He was released on 28 February 2013 and has been trying to find a job ever since.
II. Qualification for Refugee Status under the 1951 Refugee Convention (Imputed Political
Opinion and Ethnicity))
Mr. Doe is perceived as a political opponent of the government, which is evidenced by his arrest,
detention and accusations in prison. He is perceived to be as such due to his father’s political
involvement with the SPLM. The UK Border Agency highlighted in its 2012 Operational Guidance
Note that arbitrary arrests and detentions in Sudan continue to be widespread and that persons in
detention, including members of the political opposition, are often tortured or mistreated at the hands of
government forces.1
The UK Border Agency also reported that the Nuba “have aligned with the south due to perceived
injustices, discriminatory practices and marginalization by the Khartoum government.”2
It also
highlighted that many of the Nuba people supported the SPLM/A during the civil war, and that the
SPLM/A includes around 40,000 Nuba soldiers.3
Their perceived alliance with the SPLM/A places
individual members of the Nuba tribe at risk of mistreatment at the hands of government officials due to
the anti-government opinion imputed to them. Human Rights Watch also reported that Nuba people are
specifically targeted and accused of being members of the opposition party, targeted as activists, and
other perceived opponents.4
The UK Border Agency’s Report on Sudan in 2012 reported that “peoples most under threat [are,other
than Darfur ethnicities,] the Nuba [tribes].”5
It also noted that Sudanese citizens are frequently arrested
on the basis of ethnicity. In particular, black people who are suspected to be originally from either
Darfur or the Nuba Mountains, because they are often also suspected as being government opponents.6
Given that Mr. Doe was first arrested because he was perceived to be a Darfuri because of his physical
features,and then kept in detention when found to have a Nuba background, Mr.Doe cannot lead a life
without the fear of persecution due to his ethnic origins.
III. Qualification for Refugee Status under the 1951 Convention (memberof a particularsocial
group: victims of human and organ trafficking)
The Coalition for Organ-Failure Solutions recently published a report presenting its findings on the
underground phenomenon of Sudanese human trafficking for organ removal in Egypt.7
The abuses
involved in this phenomenon “include removing kidneys either by inducing consent, coercion, or
outright theft.”8
The victims vary among men, women and children.9
This report corroborates Mr. Doe’s
story, and his experience of human trafficking to Egypt to undergo the kidney removal surgery that took
place on 16 March 2011. Given that Mr. Doe’s perpetrator was a Sudanese official; he would be of great
risk if he were returned to Sudan, because Officer X may target him again to stop Mr. Doe from telling
his story.
1 United Kingdom: Home Office, Operational Guidance Note: Sudan,August 2012, Sudan OGN v 17.0, available
at: http://www.unhcr.org/refworld/docid/4fe98ac32.html [accessed 9 February 2013]
2 UK Border Agency. Operational Guidance Note: Sudan,August 2011.
3 Ibid.
4 Human Rights Watch, “World Report 2012: Sudan” Human Rights Watch, January 2012. Available at:
http://www.hrw.org/world-report-2012/world-report-2012-sudan [Accessed 18 March 2013].
5 UK Border Agency,“Republic of Sudan: Country of Origin Information (COI) Report” UK Border Agency
Home Office, September 2012.
6 Ibid.
7 Budiani-Saber, Debra “Human Trafficking for Organ Removal: Evidence from Egypt.” Rights Work, April 2013.
Available at: http://rightswork.org/2012/03/human-trafficking-for-organ-removal-evidence-from-egypt-by-debra-
budiani-saberi/ [Last Accessed on 23 April, 2013].
8 Ibid.
9 Ibid.

3. In addition, UNHCR Eligibility Guidelines no. 7,paragraph 15, states that organ removal amounts to
persecution.10
Paragraph 16 discusses ongoing concerns,even after the trafficking incident, and if the
past experience is not likely to be repeated again, like in Mr. Doe’s case,“it may still be appropriate to
recognize the individual concerned as a refugee if there are compelling reasons arising out of previous
persecution, provided the other interrelated elements of the refugee definition are fulfilled.”11
As
apparent in Mr. Doe’s case,his persecutors,and persons responsible for his organ removal experience
targeted him again, even after the procedure when they paid a visit to his work place and forced him to
sleep with them. There thus still exists fear of persecution due to his past experiences by the same
persecutory actors.
Paragraph 16 also states that if the individual is still “experiencing ongoing traumatic psychological
effects which would render return to the country of origin intolerable,”12
then it is still appropriate to
recognize the applicant as a refugee. Mr. Does medical records (presented to UNHCR) has been
suffering from post-traumatic-stress-disorder and is receiving psychiatric treatment. It would thus be
inappropriate to return Mr. Doe to Sudan, as it would be the experience of living where it all happened
in tolerable.
Further, given Mr. Doe’s strong position in fitting as a refugee under the refugee definition’s other
elements, as stated above, his case suffices that he is to be recognized as a refugee.
Moreover, COFS further reported that victims of organ trafficking continue to be exploited in the host
country, even after organs have been harvested.13
Mr. Doe’s experiences, even after the surgery, further
prove this finding by COFS. He was targeted by this man whom he worked with at the factory and
claimed to have known him from the detention center in Sudan, he was also targeted by his persecutors
when they tracked him down and found him working at the stationary shop in downtown, and he was
exploited by a group of Sudanese people who worked for an Egyptian man who grew Hash and Bango
on his land in Suez, where he was also forced to work the land without money or proper shelter.
There is no internal flight alternative in Sudan for Mr. Doe,because his persecutor is the Sudanese state.
IV. Qualification for Refugee Status under the 1969 OAU Convention
The Nuba people are currently facing very similar conditions as the Darfurians were for the past eight
years. The government is actively bombing villages of diverse groups of African tribal origins.14
Human
Rights Watch (HRW) reported that such indiscriminate bombings and abuses against Nuba people “may
amount to war crimes and crimes against humanity, and are creating humanitarian crisis.”15
The attacks
are occurring almost on a daily basis by government forces,so is the destruction of grain and water
sources. In addition, arbitrary arrests and detentions, sexual violence against women and patterns of
torture seem to be evident.16
COI indicates that the situation is becoming worse,not better.17
This is
creating a critical survival environment.
10 UNHCR Guidelineson International Protection,No.7, Paragraph 15. April 2006, available at
http://www.refworld.org/cgi-bin/texis/vtx/rwmain?docid=443679fa4 [accessed 15 May 2013].
11 Ibid., Paragraph 16.
12 Ibid.
13 Coalition for Organ Failure Solution, “Sudanese Victims of Organ Trafficking in Egypt.” December 2011,
available at: http://cofs.org/home/wp-content/uploads/2012/06/REPORT-Sud-Victims-of-OT-in-Egypt-NEW-
COVER-16-Jan-20124.pdf [accessed 15 May 2013].
14 n. 5 above..
15 Human Rights Watch,“Sudan: Crisis Conditions in Southern Kordofan” Available at European Country of
Origin Information Network (ecoi.net): http://www.ecoi.net/local_link/215716/322162_en.html [Accessed 20
February 2013].
16 Ibid.
17 “There are signals that the humanitarian situation is deteriorating fast in SPLM-N held areas which have been
cut off for many months and where there are reported to be severe food shortages and few functioning health
services.” See UN, Sudan – UN and Partners Work Plan 2012 Mid Year Review, undated circa 2012, available at:
http://reliefweb.int/report/sudan/sudan-un-and-partners-work-plan-2012-mid-year-review [accessed 21 March
2013].; The Dutch Ministry of Immigration, Integration and Asylum acknowledges that a situation of
indiscriminate violence, as described in Article 15 under C of the European Qualification Directive, exists in

4. V. Conclusion
Given the above-mentioned facts,Mr. Doe has a well-founded fear of persecution on the basis of his
imputed political opinion and ethnicity, as well as his membership to the particular social groups of
victims of human organ trafficking in Sudan. He is also unwilling to return to his country of origin due
to events seriously disturbing public order. If returned he is likely to be arbitrarily arrested and detained.
In detention, he is likely to be tortured or otherwise mistreated. He may also be killed. Mr. Doe should
therefore be granted refugee status under the 1951 Convention and 1969 OAU Convention, and granted
the protection of your office.
South Kordofan: Dutch ministry of Immigration, Integration and Asylum, 2012-10-23, WBV 2012/23 - Wijziging
C24/23 - Het asielbeleid ten aanzien van Sudan,23 October 2012 ikregeer.nl/pdf/stcrt-2012-22840.pdf.