Sweden - Migration Court of Appeal, 29 January 2018

Court name: Migration Court of Appeal
State: Sweden
Date of decision:
Legal instruments: European Union law, Other international law
Key aspects: Country of return, Exclusion grounds, Refugee status determination, Statelessness and asylum

The case concerns the application of Article 12 of the Qualification Directive (recast Directive 2011/95) on the possibility for those whose support from United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees in the Near East (UNRWA) has ceased to obtain international protection. The main issue was the determination of which country had been the applicant’s habitual place of residence to examine the reasons for protection. In the applicant’s case, while he had lived in Syria for a significant length of time, his ties to Algeria were strong enough to permit the Court to find the latter to be his habitual place of residence and consequently the applicant’s appeal was dismissed as Algeria was found to be safe.

Austria - Constitutional Court, case E 761-766/2018-18

Court name: Austrian Constitutional Court (Verfassungsgerichtshof, VfGH)
State: Austria
Date of decision:
Legal instruments: European Union law
Key aspects: Deportation and removal, Exclusion grounds, Refugee status determination, Statelessness and asylum

The case concerned the rejection of the asylum applications submitted by a single mother and her five minor children, who are stateless Palestinians from the Gaza Strip and were registered with UNRWA. The Constitutional Court found a violation of equal treatment among foreigners and held that the Federal Administrative Court had failed to recognise the applicants’ right to ipso facto protection as refugees, disregarded UNHRC’s assessment criteria for the Gaza Strip, and did not give sufficient consideration of the vulnerability of a mother mother and her five minor children.

Luxembourg - Administrative Court, judgment no. 36813C

Court name: Administrative Court of Luxembourg
State: Luxembourg
Date of decision:
Legal instruments: 1954 Statelessness Convention, European Union law
Key aspects: Burden of proof, Determination/confirmation of nationality, Exclusion grounds, Standard of proof, Stateless status and documentation, Statelessness and asylum, Statelessness determination

The applicant is a Palestinian from Syria, who holds a refugee status in Hungary. He also applied for a recognition as a stateless person in Luxembourg. The Court found that the 1954 Statelessness Convention was conceived as complementary to the Refugee Convention. Since the applicant as a refugee in Hungary received at least as good a protection as a Palestinian in an UNRWA protected territory, the latter category being explicitly excluded from the protection scope of the 1954 Convention, the applicant did not qualify for the recognition of a statelessness status in Luxembourg.