France - National Asylum Court, 13 February 2012, M.D., No. 11026661
| Country of Decision: | France |
| Country of applicant: | Saudi Arabia |
| Court name: | National Asylum Court |
| Date of decision: | 13-02-2012 |
| Citation: | CNDA, 13 February 2012, M.D., n° 11026661 |
Keywords:
| Keywords |
|
Actors of protection
Description
"Actors such as: (a) the State; or (b) parties or organisations, including international organisations, controlling the State or a substantial part of the territory of the State; who take reasonable steps to prevent the persecution or suffering of serious harm, inter alia, by operating an effective legal system for the detection, prosecution and punishment of acts constituting persecution or serious harm, and the applicant has access to such protection." |
|
Actor of persecution or serious harm
Description
Per Art. 6 QD actors who subject an individual to acts of serious harm (as defined in Art. 15). Actors of persecution or serious harm include: (a) the State; (b) parties or organisations controlling the State or a substantial part of the territory of the State; (c) non-State actors, if it can be demonstrated that the actors mentioned in (a) and (b), including international organisations, are unable or unwilling to provide protection against persecution or serious harm as defined in Article 7. |
|
Country of former habitual residence
Description
The country in which a stateless person had resided and where s/he had suffered or fears s/he would suffer persecution if s/he returned. For the purposes of the Qualification Directive, “country of origin” means, for stateless persons, the country or countries of former habitual residence. |
|
Stateless person
Description
Person who is not considered as a national by any State under the operation of its law. This includes also a person whose nationality is not established. |
|
Political Opinion
Description
One of the grounds of persecution specified in the refugee definition per Article 1A ofthe1951 Refugee Convention. According to the Qualification Directive the concept of political opinion includes holding an opinion, thought or belief on a matter related to potential actors of persecution and to their policies or methods, whether or not that opinion, thought or belief has been acted upon by the applicant. |
Headnote:
The fears of an Applicant originating from a refugee camp near Tindouf were considered with regard to the Self-Proclaimed Sahrawi Arab Democratic Republic (SADR), taken as a de facto authority.
Facts:
The Applicant was born and had always lived in a refugee camp near Tindouf, on Algerian territory. He expressed fears with regard to the authorities of the Self-Proclaimed Sahrawi Arab Democratic Republic (SADR) based on his opposition to the Polisario Front.
Decision & reasoning:
First of all, the Court recalled that the camps were managed by Sahrawi authorities appointed by the refugees and exercised administrative, policing, legal, military and political power there, with the full agreement of the Algerian authorities. These de facto authorities exercised sole power over this territory. In this particular case, since the Applicant did not hold either Moroccan or Algerian nationality, the Court examined his fears with regard to the SADR, the de facto authority.
On the merits, relying, in particular, on the statements made by the Applicant and various items of information on the country of origin which condemned the repressive attitude of the self-proclaimed SADR authorities in relation to opponents of the Polisario Front, the Court considered that the Applicant had a well-founded fear of persecution on political grounds in the event of a return to the self-proclaimed SADR refugee camps.
Outcome:
The Applicant’s refugee status was recognised.
Relevant International and European Legislation:
Cited National Legislation:
| Cited National Legislation |
| France - Ceseda (Code of the Entry and Stay of Foreigners and Asylum Law) |