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…

Positive CJEU judgment in Chavez case (C-133/15)

On 10 May the CJEU issued its judgment in the case of Chavez-Vilchez and others about the interpretation of Article 20 TfEU.

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

In 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 but adults at the moment their asylum status…

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…

In the light of the unity and development of law and legal protection

This expert opinion examines whether the Council of State violates EU law (the right to an effective remedy and fair trial guaranteed by Article 47 of the EU Charter) when it refuses to refer a preliminary question to the CJEU without stating reasons for that decision.In a judgment of 5 March 2015 the Dutch Council of…

Forced to leave but nowhere to return to

This expert opinion examines whether stateless Palestinians can in practice return to Lebanon, Jordan and the Palestinian territories. Furthermore it assesses which rights stateless Palestinians can claim in the Netherlands by virtue of their non-removability and regardless of their lack of a legal residential status. MLC_report stateless Palestinians_final april 2016