Court name: Constitutional Court of Austria (Verfassungsgerichtshof)
State: Austria
Date of decision:
Key aspects: Burden of proof, Country of return, Deportation and removal, Determination/confirmation of nationality, Establishing identity, Residence permit, Standard of proof, Statelessness and asylum, Statelessness determination
The applicant was born in Armenia and belongs to Yazidis minority. After many years of unlawful residence in Austria, and several unsuccessful attempts to deport him, he applied for a toleration permit, which was refused as he did not cooperate sufficiently with the authorities' attempts to obtain travel documents for him to travel to Armenia, and there is also a possibility he may be a Russian or a Ukrainian national. The Court sided with the applicant, stating that it was the authorities' responsibility to substantiate any presumed links between the applicant and a specific state, before the duty to cooperate could be imposed.