Latest News


UK: High Court rules Home Office’s work policy for asylum seekers as unlawful and against the best interest of the child

Date: 
Monday, October 4, 2021

On 4th October, the UK High Court gave its judgment in a case concerning a 24-year-old Honduran citizen who claimed asylum in the UK with his wife and then 21-month-old daughter in 2018.

CRC: Declares Switzerland did not consider the best interests of the child in a removal decision to Bulgaria

Date: 
Wednesday, October 6, 2021

On 6th October 2021, the Committee on the Rights of the Child gave their decision in the case of MKAH v Switzerland. This case was brought by the Centre Suisse pour la defense des droits des migrants (CDSM) with a joint third party intervention from the AIRE Centre, ECRE and the Dutch Council for Refugees. It concerned a stateless Palestinian boy who was born in a refugee camp in Damascus, Syria.

CRPD: Rules Sweden's decision to deport Afghan would deteriorate his mental health condition

Date: 
Monday, October 11, 2021

On the 11th October, the Committee on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities made its recommendations to Sweden concerning the case of ZH. This case involved an Afghan national who applied for asylum in Sweden in 2008.

Latest Cases


Country of Applicant: Nigeria

The conditions of detention amounted to a violation of Article 3, in so far as the applicant remained in isolation, in a container with inadequate natural light and ventilation, for a significant amount of time and without any consideration of alternatives. The applicant’s unnecessary placement in a part of the detention facility that was reserved for Covid-19 quarantine also exposed him to health risk.

The applicant’s detention was not lawful under Article 5 (1) ECHR, as it lasted for fourteen months, the authorities were aware that the deportation was not feasible and failed to pursue the matter with diligence. Article 34 was also violated due to irregularities in the manner that legal aid was provided to the applicant and the lack of confidentiality and support during his communication with the Court while he was in detention.

Country of Applicant: Unknown

Member States are required to take due account of the best interests of the child before adopting a return decision accompanied by an entry ban, even where the person to whom that decision is addressed is not a minor but his or her father.

Country of Applicant: Afghanistan

The European Court of Human Rights ruled that the removal of families belonging to the Sikh religious minority to Afghanistan would not constitute a violation of Article 3 ECHR, as the applicants’ situation failed to reach the severity threshold required by this Article. Despite the fact that the Sikh community suffers from intimidation and intolerance within the Afghan society, the Court did not find that this group is the target of a practice of a systematic practice of ill-treatment, despite any difficulties they may be facing in the country.

About EDAL


The European Database of Asylum Law (EDAL) is an online database managed by the European Council on Refugees and Exiles (ECRE) and a compilation of summaries of refugee and asylum case law from the courts of 22 European states, the Court of Justice of the European Union (CJEU) and the European Court of Human Rights (ECtHR). The summaries are published in English and in the relevant state’s national language.

For more information please see here.

If you are interested in contributing an article on a relevant subject to the EDAL blog or would like to inform us about an important national judgment, please kindly send an email to Stavros Papageorgopoulos (spapageorgopoulos@ecre.org).