France: National Court of Asylum must take into account all provided documents and must motivate reasons to set a document aside

Date: 
Thursday, June 21, 2018

On 21 June 2018, the French Council of State ruled in case no. 413978 concerning an Armenian couple whose asylum applications were rejected by the French Office for the Protection of Refugees and Stateless Persons (OFPRA) and whose appeals were rejected by the National Court of Asylum.

The Council of State recalled that the National Court of Asylum, when assessing the credibility of the claims submitted by an asylum applicant, must take into account all the documents provided by the applicant. In particular, where the applicant submits documents that contain detailed information relating to his account, it is incumbent on the court, after assessing the probative value of the document in relation to the facts as put forward by the applicant, to assess the risks which they are likely to reveal and, where appropriate, to motivate the elements that lead the Court to disregard those risks.

In this case, the Council of State found that the National Court of Asylum had erred in disregarding the medical reports submitted to it in relation to the injuries and traumas suffered by the applicants and consistent with their account of the facts, without justifying the reasons to set the documents aside. Therefore, the Council of State sent the case back to the National Court of Asylum for a new decision.

Based on an unofficial translation by the ELENA Weekly Legal Update.


This item was reproduced with the permission of ECRE from the weekly ELENA legal update supported by theFundamental Rights and Citizenship Funding Programme and distributed by email. 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 published but no responsibility for its accuracy and correctness, or for any consequences of relying on it, is assumed by ECRE, the IRC or its partners.

                                                     

 

Keywords: 
Credibility assessment
Medical Reports/Medico-legal Reports
Relevant Documentation