ECRE is currently working on redeveloping the website. Visitors can still access the database and search for asylum-related judgments up until 2021.
Germany - High Administrative Court Baden-Wurttemberg, 1 December 2010, A 2 S 1898/10
Country of Decision:
Country of Applicant:
Date of Decision:
01-12-2010
Citation:
A 2 S 1898/10
Additional Citation:
asyl.net/M17979
Court Name:
High Administrative Court Baden-Wurttemberg
Relevant Legislative Provisions:
European Union Law > EN - Qualification Directive, Directive 2004/83/EC of 29 April 2004 > Art 4
European Union Law > EN - Qualification Directive, Directive 2004/83/EC of 29 April 2004 > Art 4 > Art 4.4
European Union Law > EN - Qualification Directive, Directive 2004/83/EC of 29 April 2004 > Art 10 > Art 10.1 (d)
European Union Law > EN - Qualification Directive, Directive 2004/83/EC of 29 April 2004 > Art 10 > Art 10.1 (e)
European Union Law > EN - Qualification Directive, Directive 2004/83/EC of 29 April 2004 > Art 4 > Art 4.4
European Union Law > EN - Qualification Directive, Directive 2004/83/EC of 29 April 2004 > Art 10 > Art 10.1 (d)
European Union Law > EN - Qualification Directive, Directive 2004/83/EC of 29 April 2004 > Art 10 > Art 10.1 (e)
Printer-friendly version
PDF version of Summary
Headnote:
The group of “Iraqi citizens who cooperate with the coalition forces” in Iraq is not to be characterised as a “social group” within the meaning of the Qualification Directive (confirmation of decision of Administrative Court of Karlsruhe of the 16 April 2010, A 10 K 523/08). It cannot be assumed that any kind of cooperation with the coalition forces is an expression of a certain political conviction or that Islamist terrorist organisations would have an understanding of this kind of cooperation.
Facts:
The applicant is a woman from Mosul and of Kurdish ethnicity. She applied for asylum in Germany in November 2007 and claimed that terrorists had threatened to kill her because she had been working on a US army base in Iraq. Her brother was severely injured in an attack. The German authorities rejected the application in December 2007. The applicant appealed to the Administrative Court of Karlsruhe.
The Administrative Court found that she was not entitled to refugee status since the group of Iraqi citizens who cooperate with the occupying forces could not be characterised as a “social group” within the meaning of the Qualification Directive. Furthermore, the Administrative Court found that the applicant was entitled to subsidiary protection since there was an armed conflict in the Nineveh region and because the threats by terrorists experienced in the past constituted individual “risk-enhancing” circumstances.
The applicant applied for leave for a further appeal at the High Administrative Court insofar as the rejection of refugee status was concerned.
Decision & Reasoning:
The application to grant a further appeal at the High Administrative Court was rejected. The Administrative Court's decision to deny refugee status did not meet with objections from the High Administrative Court which stated:
The Administrative Court held that in the applicant's case terrorist attacks on persons who cooperate with the coalition forces are to be classified as criminal acts. The applicant applied for a further appeal procedure to clarify the question of whether such attacks are connected to the persecution ground “political opinion”. This question cannot be answered generally as the answer depends on the respective circumstances of each individual case. Cooperation with the coalition forces can take place in highly different manners and the motivation for such cooperation are equally diverse. Therefore it is impossible to deduce from the fact that someone cooperates with the coalition forces that she/he has a certain political opinion.
For the same reasons the question of whether persons in Iraq who cooperate with the coalition forces have to be regarded as a social group, can be answered in the negative. The Administrative Court has correctly found that the characteristic of “cooperating with the occupying forces” is not appropriate to distinguish the members of this group in a way that they would be regarded as a clearly defined group.
Outcome:
The application to grant a further appeal at the High Administrative Court was rejected. The decision by the Administrative Court to deny refugee status was legally valid.
Subsequent Proceedings :
None
Case Law Cited:
Germany - Federal Constitutional Court, 10 July 1989, 2 BvR 502/86
