News

The applicant in the main proceedings is a Togolese national whose asylum application was rejected in Luxembourg. She was granted tolerated status after the birth of her twin children. They were granted French citizenship shortly afterwards as their father was a French citizen. Ms. Alopka and her children remained in Luxembourg living in a shelter for families without resources. Later on, she applied for residence. Her application was rejected and she was ordered to leave the country. In the course of appeals proceedings, she also presented an employment offer she got.

The French Conseil d'État adjudicated in December 2012 on three cases concerning female genital mutilation (FGM) and overruled the jurisprudence of the Cour nationale du droit d'asile. The Conseil d'État has decided that girls born in France threatened with FGM can constitute, under certain circumstances, a social group in the sense of the Geneva Convention relating to the Status of Refugees and can therefore be granted asylum.

The Meijers Committee published on 10 October 2012 a note on the amended proposal for a Regulation on the establishment of Eurodac. The new draft provides for the possibility to request comparison with Eurodac data by Member States law enforcement authorities and Europol. This was also proposed in 2009 but lapsed as a consequence of the Treaty of Lisbon.

A German coalition composed of seven organisations (Pro Asyl, Diakonie, the Paritärische Welfare Association, AWO, the Jesuit Refugee Service, the German Bar Association and the Neue Richtervereinigung) has issued a memorandum criticising the Dublin system for the allocation of responsibility for the examination of asylum claims in the EU. The memorandum argues that the current system overburdens states at the external borders at the EU and, as a result of this, forces asylum seekers into destitution and loss of their rights.