The legality of the detention of third-country nationals in order to ensure the passing back to the Member State where they enjoy international protection

This project concerns three cases (CJEU Case C‐673/19), in which the Council of State has referred a preliminary question on 4 September 2019. The question concerns the detention of migrants, who have received an asylum status in another EU Member State and have applied for asylum in the Netherlands. Their asylum applications have been declared…

Third party intervention European Court of Human Rights case S.S. v Sweden (Appl no 43654/18)

The case concerns a young Afghan woman, who applied for asylum in Sweden. The application was rejected. She complains that her return to Afghanistan would violate Art. 3 of the European Convention of Human Rights. The ECtHR has communicated the case to the Swedish Government on 10 December 2018 and asked it the following questions: 1. In…

(Late) submission of new asylum motives during the appeal before first instance courts and the requirement of a full and ex nunc judicial examination of Article 46(3) RAPD

On 4 October 2017 the Administrative Jurisdiction Division of the Council of State (AJD) referred preliminary questions to the Court of Justice (Case C-586/17) about the judicial review in asylum cases. The AJD wants to know whether asylum motives (reasons for international protection) which are first mentioned during the appeal phase should be taken into account…

The ‘bewijsnood’ policy of the Dutch immigration service: A correct interpretation of the Family Reunification Directive or an unlawful procedural hurdle?

This expert opinion is about Eritrean asylum status holders in the Netherlands, who try to be reunited with their family members left behind. An asylum status holder can apply for reunification with his family left abroad, within three months following the decision granting his or her asylum status. One of the conditions for family reunification is…

The relevant date for considering the age of unaccompanied minor refugees for the purpose of family reunification

ECRE/ELENA Legal Note on Ageing Out and Family ReunificationIn January 2017 the Migration Law Clinic finalised an expert opinion in the context of a preliminary question of the district court of Amsterdam of 26 October 2016. The question concerns the right to family reunification of persons who were an unaccompanied minor at the moment of their asylum application…

Once a criminal, always a threat?

According to Dutch policy and case law the fact that there are ‘serious reasons for considering’ a person guilty of crimes defined in Article 1F Refugee Convention implies that his personal conduct is deemed forever to constitute a ‘genuine, present and sufficiently serious threat affecting one of the fundamental interests of society’ in the meaning…