Communicated case against Switzerland (application No. 57303/18)

Date: 
Friday, December 18, 2020

S.Y. v Switzerland (application No. 57303/18) concerns an Eritrean national who entered Switzerland with her partner and their two children and was granted refugee status in 2010.
 
The applicant filed an application for family reunification in March 2010 for X, her daughter, who had been left behind in Sudan. The application was rejected for procedural reasons and because she depended on social assistance. The applicant filed other applications in December 2014 and September 2016, which were rejected by the Federal Administrative Court because S.Y. was considered not sufficiently financially independent. 

The applicant complains that the refusal of the Swiss authorities to grant her daughter, X, family reunification in Switzerland entails a violation of Article 8 ECHR. She further complains that the best interests of X were not sufficiently taken into account in the authorities’ assessment, given the current situation in Sudan. Moreover, the applicant complains that the Swiss authorities failed to act expeditiously and that she has been discriminated against on the basis of her status, in violation of Article 14 in conjunction with Article 8 ECHR. 
 
The ECtHR asks the parties questions regarding, inter alia, violations of Article 8 and the failure to grant family reunification and act in the best interests of X, the length of the family reunification procedure and discrimination in breach of Article 14 in conjunction with Article 8. 
 
Based on an unofficial translation by the EWLU Team.


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Keywords: 
Best interest of the child
Discrimination
Family reunification