40 M.S.S. v. BELGIUM AND GREECE JUDGMENT were then sent back to Afghanistan by the Turkish authorities without their applications for asylum being considered. 193. Several reports highlight the serious risk of refoulement as soon as the decision is taken to reject the asylum application, because an appeal to the Supreme Administrative Court has no automatic suspensive effect. 5. Letter of the UNHCR of 2 April 2009 194. On 2 April 2009 the UNHCR sent a letter to the Belgian Minister for Migration and Asylum Policy criticising the deficiencies in the asylum procedure and the conditions of reception of asylum-seekers in Greece and recommending the suspension of transfers to Greece. A copy was sent to the Aliens Office. The letter read as follows (extracts): “The UNHCR is aware that the Court, in its decision in K.R.S. v. the United Kingdom [(dec.), no. 32733/08, 2 December 2008] ... recently decided that the transfer of an asylum-seeker to Greece did not present a risk of refoulement for the purposes of Article 3 of the Convention. However, the Court did not give judgment on compliance by Greece with its obligations under international law on refugees. In particular, the Court said nothing about whether the conditions of reception of asylum-seekers were in conformity with regional and international standards of human rights protection, or whether asylum-seekers had access to fair consideration of their asylum applications, or even whether refugees were effectively able to exercise their rights under the Geneva Convention. The UNHCR believes that this is still not the case.” 195. It concluded: “For the above reasons the UNHCR maintains its assessment of the Greek asylum system and the recommendations formulated in its position of April 2008, namely that governments should refrain from transferring asylum-seekers to Greece and take responsibility for examining the corresponding asylum applications themselves, in keeping with Article 3 § 2 of the Dublin Regulation.” VI. INTERNATIONAL DOCUMENTS DESCRIBING THE SITUATION IN AFGHANISTAN 196. Afghanistan has been embroiled in an armed conflict since 1979. The present situation is based on the civil war of 1994 to 2001, during which the mujahideen (the veterans of the anti-Soviet resistance, many of whose leaders now hold public office) fought the Taliban movement, and the fall-out from the attacks of 11 September 2001 in the United States of America. 197. According to the UNHCR1, the situation in Afghanistan can be described as an intensifying armed conflict accompanied by serious and widespread targeted human rights violations. The Afghan government and 1. UNHCR Eligibility Guidelines for Assessing the International Protection Needs of Asylum-Seekers from Afghanistan, July 2009, which replaced those of December 2007.