R.L. v Belgium: Declaration of friendly settlement following assurances to re-examine asylum application

Date: 
Thursday, January 16, 2020

On 16 January 2020, the European Court of Human Rights published its decision to strike the case of R.L. v Belgium (App no. 15388/18) out of the list after the parties reached a friendly settlement.

The applicant, a Colombian national, claims to have fled from Colombia due to threats by armed groups involved in drug trafficking. He claimed that his asylum application was not subject to a rigorous and careful examination and that an excessive burden of proof was placed on him by asylum authorities and, as such, he was denied the only full remedy available to him required by Article 13 in conjunction with Article 3 ECHR.
The Government have since provided assurances that it would examine a new application for international protection by conducting a rigorous examination of all available evidence in relation to both the general situation in Colombia and the individual circumstances of the applicant. Such an assurance is made to remedy the apparent lack of effective remedy available to the applicant.

The Court decided that it was no longer necessary to examine the application and that the complaint should be struck out of the list of cases.

Based on an unofficial translation by the EWLU team.


This item was reproduced with the permission of ECRE from the ELENA Weekly Legal Update. The purpose of these updates is to inform asylum lawyers and legal organizations supporting asylum seekers and refugees of recent developments in the field of asylum law. Please note that the information provided is taken from publicly available information on the internet. Every reasonable effort is made to make the content accurate and up to date at the time each item is pusexblished but no responsibility for its accuracy and correctness, or for any consequences of relying on it, is assumed by ECRE.

 

Keywords: 
Effective remedy (right to)
Inhuman or degrading treatment or punishment