The Dutch Council of State has decided to refer a question for a preliminary ruling of the Court of Justice of the European Union concerning the assessment of the credibility of asylum claims based on persecution on grounds of sexual orientation:
The Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe has adopted two reports with the corresponding resolutions and recommendations to the Committee of Ministers concerning migration and asylum issues.
In November 2012 the Irish Supreme Court referred a question for a preliminary ruling to the CJEU in the case Nawaz v Minister for Justice Equality & Law Reform and others, asking directly about the compatibility of the Irish system with Directive 2004/83/EC:
The applicant, Akhmadzhon Niyazov, is an Uzbek national who was born in 1961 and, living in Russia since 2009, currently resides in Irkutsk. In March 2010, criminal proceedings were brought against him in Uzbekistan on suspicion of membership of “Wahhabism”, a religious organisation banned in Uzbekistan, and on 29 October 2010 he was arrested in Irkutsk with a view to his extradition.On 20 December 2010 the applicant lodged a request for refugee status in Russia with the Irkutsk FMS on the ground of fear of persecution because of his religious beliefs.
The Council of Europe Commissioner for Human Rights has published his first quarterly activity report for 2013, detailing his activities in the first three months of the year. It includes a section on the human rights of immigrants, refugees and asylum seekers.
Eurostat has published the asylum statistics for 2012 in the European Union. They reflect an increase of 30.000 in the total number of applications presented in the European Union with respect to 2011. Germany, France, Sweden, the United Kingdom and Belgium received 70% of these applications. Afghanistan remained the first country of origin, followed by Syria and Russia. 14% of first instance decisions taken in 2012 granted refugee status, 10 % subsidiary protection and 2% authorisation to stay for humanitarian reasons, making up 27% positive first instance decisions.
In the issue of 29 March 2013, the Weekly Legal Update and EDAL reported on a decision of the Council of Europe's Social Rights Committee in which it found that Belgium [had] violated several rights of the European Social Charter of 1961 (...). The violations found were in fact violations of the European Social Charter Revised, and not of the Charter of 1961. The Weekly Legal Update and EDAL apologise for this mistake and hope that it did not cause confusion or inconvenience to readers.
On 21 - 25 January the PACE Committee on Migration, Refugees and Displaced Persons will discuss several reports concerning the human rights role and capabilities of FRONTEX, the returns of irregular migrants and failed asylum seekers. They will also look at the integration of migrants and the rights of unaccompanied migrant children once they turn 18.
The applicants are the members of a stateless family who were granted asylum in Bulgaria in 2001 and live in Sofia. In 2006, Mr. Mahmud Amie, the father, was placed in detention following an order for his expulsion on grounds that he was involved in terrorist activities and represented a serious threat for national security. He was released after three months and then placed in detention again from 2008 to 2010 pending enforcement of his expulsion. He was released after the Sofia Administrative Court reviewed his detention.
