72 M.S.S. v. BELGIUM AND GREECE JUDGMENT Although in the T.I. v. the United Kingdom case the Court rejected the argument that the fact that Germany was a party to the Convention absolved the United Kingdom from verifying the fate that awaited an asylum-seeker it was about to transfer to that country, the fact that the asylum procedure in Germany apparently complied with the Convention, and in particular Article 3, enabled the Court to reject the allegation that the applicant’s removal to Germany would make him run a real and serious risk of treatment contrary to that Article. The Court considered that there was no reason in that particular case to believe that Germany would have failed to honour its obligations under Article 3 of the Convention and protect the applicant from removal to Sri Lanka if he submitted credible arguments demonstrating that he risked ill-treatment in that country. 343. That approach was confirmed and developed in the decision in K.R.S. v. the United Kingdom (cited above). The case concerned the transfer by the United Kingdom authorities, in application of the Dublin Regulation, of an Iranian asylum-seeker to Greece, through which country he had passed before arriving in the United Kingdom in 2006. Relying on Article 3 of the Convention, the applicant complained of the deficiencies in the asylum procedure in Greece and the risk of being sent back to Iran without the merits of his asylum application being examined, as well as the reception conditions reserved for asylum-seekers in Greece. After having confirmed the applicability of the T.I. v. the United Kingdom case-law to the Dublin Regulation (see also on this point Stapleton v. Ireland (dec.), no. 56588/07, § 30, ECHR 2010), the Court considered that in the absence of proof to the contrary it must assume that Greece complied with the obligations imposed on it by the Council Directives laying down minimum standards for asylum procedures and the reception of asylum-seekers (“the Procedures Directive” and “the Reception Directive”; see paragraphs 84 and 85 above), which had been transposed into Greek law, and that it would comply with Article 3 of the Convention. In the Court’s opinion, in view of the information available at the time to the United Kingdom Government and the Court, it was possible to assume that Greece was complying with its obligations and not sending anybody back to Iran, the applicant’s country of origin. Nor was there any reason to believe that persons sent back to Greece under the Dublin Regulation, including those whose applications for asylum had been rejected by a final decision of the Greek authorities, had been or could be prevented from applying to the Court for an interim measure under Rule 39 of the Rules of Court. (b) Application of these principles to the present case 344. The Court has already stated its opinion that the applicant could arguably claim that his removal to Afghanistan would violate Article 2 or Article 3 of the Convention (see paragraphs 296-97 above).

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