Case summaries

The decision to expel an orphaned minor to Poland when he had a legal guardian in Austria gave rise to a real risk of a violation of Art 8 ECHR. The Asylum Court made its decision without providing clear reasons. The applicant’s family ties in the home country and in Austria must be considered, regardless of the duration of the applicant’s stay in Austria. The sovereignty clause must be applied when there is a real risk of a violation of Art 8 ECHR.

The applicant stated that he had been a member of the Taliban amongst other things. The Federal Asylum Agency (BAA) declared that the expulsion of the applicant to Afghanistan was permissible. The Asylum Court acted on the assumption of the existence of the ground for exclusion from asylum of ”Crimes against humanity“ and therefore granted neither asylum nor subsidiary protection, but revoked the expulsion to Afghanistan. The Constitutional Court allowed the appeal by the applicant against this decision as sufficient findings were not established in relation to the assumed crime against humanity.

The case concerned an applicant who was to be extradited to Rwanda to stand trial on charges of genocide. He challenged the extradition on the grounds that it would violate Articles 3 and 6 of the Convention.

Domestic protection is deemed to exist even if it is not determined in advance how effective it is.

Where there has been an incomplete transposition, precise and unconditional provisions of the Asylum Procedures Directive may be directly relied upon by foreigners present on French territory. This is, in particular, the case with the provisions of Article 10(1), which state that asylum seekers should be given timely information concerning the procedure which they must follow, and in a language which that they can be reasonably thought to understand. Under Article 34 of the same Directive, these provisions apply equally in the case of a subsequent application.

Two appeals have been made - by the asylum seeker and the State representative – to the Supreme Court against the judgment given by the High National Court which partially upheld the appeal filed against the Ministry of the Interior’s decision to deny international protection to an Ivorian national.   The High National Court’s decision, while denying refugee status, granted the applicant permission to reside in Spain under Article 17(2) of the Asylum Law (humanitarian considerations).The asylum seeker requests that his refugee status be recognised.The Public Prosecutor requests that the permit to reside in Spain on grounds of humanitarian considerations be retracted.The Supreme Court decided to maintain the applicant’s residence permit on grounds of humanitarian considerations on the basis of the updated country of origin information and the consequent risk to the person’s life or physical integrity.

If access is denied at the border, the foreigner may in principle be detained (after an asylum application is made at the border), if detention 'proves necessary' within the meaning of Article 7(3) of the Reception Conditions Directive.

A recognised refugee may only be refused a residence document if there are serious grounds to consider that he is a danger to the security of the Federal Republic of Germany.

The question as to whether a refugee should be refused a residence document because he supports a terrorist organisation can only be determined following a comprehensive, specific verification of the activities of the organisation and the foreign national based on an overall evaluation by the trial judge (following the decision of 15 March 2005 – Federal Administrative Court 1 C 26.03 - Federal Administrative Court 123, 114).

There is not currently an indiscriminate conflict in Afghanistan (as a whole, or in any province) within the meaning of Article 15(c). Internal protection is in general possible in Kabul; however it is unreasonable to expect certain categories of women to seek internal protection within Afghanistan.

Article L. 712(1) (b) of the CESEDA requires the asylum judge to examine whether the circumstances allow the risks referred to in this provision to be regarded as proven. The protection provided for in this Article is only granted where there is a real, rather than possible, risk of inhuman or degrading treatment in the event of a return to the Applicant’s country of origin.