60 M.S.S. v. BELGIUM AND GREECE JUDGMENT (b) Application in the present case 294. In order to determine whether Article 13 applies to the present case, the Court must ascertain whether the applicant can arguably assert that his removal to Afghanistan would infringe Article 2 or Article 3 of the Convention. 295. It notes that, when lodging his application the applicant produced, in support of his fears concerning Afghanistan, copies of certificates showing that he had worked as an interpreter (see paragraph 31 above). It also has access to general information about the current situation in Afghanistan and to the UNHCR Eligibility Guidelines for Assessing the International Protection Needs of Asylum-Seekers from Afghanistan published by the UNHCR and regularly updated (see paragraphs 197-202 above). 296. For the Court, this information is prima facie evidence that the situation in Afghanistan has posed and continues to pose a widespread problem of insecurity and that the applicant belongs to a category of persons particularly exposed to reprisals at the hands of the anti-government forces because of the work he did as an interpreter for the international air force troops. It further notes that the gravity of the situation in Afghanistan and the risks that exist there are not disputed by the parties. On the contrary, the Greek Government have stated that their current policy is not to send asylum-seekers back to that country by force precisely because of the highrisk situation there. 297. The Court concludes from this that the applicant has an arguable claim under Article 2 or Article 3 of the Convention. 298. This does not mean that in the present case the Court must rule on whether there would be a violation of those provisions if the applicant were returned. It is in the first place for the Greek authorities, who have responsibility for asylum matters, themselves to examine the applicant’s request and the documents produced by him and assess the risks to which he would be exposed in Afghanistan. The Court’s primary concern is whether effective guarantees exist in the present case to protect the applicant against arbitrary removal directly or indirectly back to his country of origin. 299. The Court notes that Greek legislation, based on Community law standards in terms of asylum procedure, contains a number of guarantees designed to protect asylum-seekers from removal back to the countries from which they have fled without any examination of the merits of their fears (see paragraphs 99-121 above). It notes the Government’s assurances that the applicant’s application for asylum will be examined in conformity with the law. 300. The Court observes, however, that for a number of years the UNHCR and the Council of Europe Commissioner for Human Rights, as well as many international non-governmental organisations, have revealed repeatedly and consistently that Greece’s legislation is not being applied in

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