Netherlands: Court of Appeal suspends Dublin Transfer to Poland (AWB 13/11314) [Art. 47, Charter of Fundamental Rights of the EU]

The Court of Appeal suspended a Dublin transfer from the Netherlands to Poland. The argument invoked by the applicant was the lack of an effective remedy in accordance with Article 47 of the EU Charter in Poland in asylum cases. This is based on the fact that in Poland an asylum seeker can lodge a request for administrative review of the negative decision taken by the Polish Office for Foreigners with the Refugee Board (administrative authority) which has suspensive effect. If the decision of the Refugee Board is negative the asylum seeker can lodge an appeal and a request for provisional suspension of the removal order to the Administrative Court. However, in practice there is a considerable delay between the moment when the Refugee Board receives the appeal and the moment it sends the appeal and the request for interim suspension to the Administrative Court. During that period, asylum seekers can be deported. The Dutch Court accepts that in the past asylum seekers have been deported from Poland without having had access to an effective remedy.

The appeal before the Dutch Court has a reasonable chance of success and therefore the interest of the asylum seeker not to be subjected to irreparable harm supersedes the interest of the Dutch State to remove the applicant in the short term. Therefore the Court orders that the authorities cannot remove the applicant until 4 weeks after final decision has been taken on the appeal. This judgment suspends the Dublin transfer pending a full assessment of the appeal. There is currently no information as to when the final decision on the appeal can be expected.

Read the full text of the judgment (in Dutch) on the Dutch Council for Refugees website.

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