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The Applicant, an Iranian national, was a militant journalist in Iran who fled after being arrested and tortured for anti-establishment protests. Arriving in Greece via Turkey, his asylum claim was dismissed and he was detained pending deportation to Turkey in a police station and various detention centres. He filed objections to his detention conditions, alleging lack of hygiene and overcrowding, but these were rejected. He initiated an appeal against the asylum refusal while in detention, and was then released due to the expiration of the maximum detention time period under Greek law.

These three cases are about the proposed deportation of three Sunni Muslim Iraqi nationals from Sweden back to Iraq, on account of their asylum claims having been rejected in 2010, three years after their arrival. B.K.A., a member of the Ba’ath party, worked as a professional soldier for over a year for the regime of Saddam Hussein. He was also involved in a blood feud after unintentionally killing a relative. T.A. worked for security companies in Baghdad who co-operated with the US military, and alleged that his house was completely destroyed by Shi’ite militias. T.K.H.

The case concerns three former Applicants for asylum who, in the course of their applications, sought to obtain access to an official document drafted by the immigration authority containing internal legal advice on whether to grant residence status. The issue is whether the legal analysis contained in the document constitutes ‘personal data’ within the meaning of Article 2(a) of the Privacy Directive, and whether the Applicants accordingly have a right to access the document under Article 12 of that Directive and Article 8(2) of the EU Charter.

A reference for a preliminary ruling concerning Article 7(4) of the Returns Directive was published by the CJEU on 13 December 2013. It was lodged on 28 October by the Raad van State (Netherlands) and the questions read as follows: