Following on from a Rule 39 measure from the European Court of Human Rights preventing the transfer of the applicant to Bulgaria under the Dublin Regulation, the Tribunal ordered the police prefect to register the applicant's claim for asylum in France.
The applicant is an Afghan national who made an asylum application in France on 14 September 2017. This was later followed by a take-back request from the French authorities to the Bulgarian authorities, which was accepted by the latter on 28 September 2017. The French police prefect subsequently ordered the transfer. The applicant later refused to board the flight to Sofia and several months later was placed in administrative detention. The applicant requested his application for asylum to be registered in France and his release from administrative detention to be ordered by the “juge des référés”.
The Tribunal first notes the legislative provisions under the Dublin Regulation relating to the time limits to transfer an applicant to the responsible Member State for the applicant’s asylum application along with the CJEU’s judgment in CK and Others which states that an applicant may not be transferred to a responsible Member State under Dublin if such a transfer would lead to a real risk of inhuman or degrading treatment. As such, the Tribunal states that the applicant, whilst in Bulgaria, was deprived of his liberty and health care during three months and was beaten. These statements were substantiated by photos and had not been denied by the French national authorities. Moreover, the Tribunal notes that the refusal to board a plane to Sofia cannot constitute proof that the applicant intentionally and systematically evaded the execution of the transfer order. Thus, by refusing to register the asylum application the police prefect seriously and manifestly violated the fundamental freedom constituted by the constitutional right of asylum and its corollary, the right to seek refugee status.
The Tribunal orders the police prefect to register the applicant’s asylum application within 10 days from the notification of the decision.
This case follows a successful Rule 39 application to the European Court of Human Rights which suspended the applicant’s transfer to Bulgaria (G.K. v. France). A second Rule 39 application, similarly relating to an Afghan national facing a transfer to Bulgaria under the Dublin Regulation, was also granted by the European Court of Human Rights (S.H. v France, Application 31442/18). The Court specifically asks the Government whether the applicant faces an Article 3 ECHR violation if returned to Bulgaria in light of the recent reports from the CPT [8] and Special Representative of the Secretary General on migration and refugees [9] on the treatment of asylum seekers in Bulgaria.