Last December, the Hungarian Supreme Court issued its opinion on the concept of "safe third country". This opinion is of relevance as it shall guide the application of this concept by Hungarian judges and thus promote a harmonised practice in asylum cases. The reason for issuing this opinion was precisely the divergence in the criteria applied by Hungarian courts when reviewing administrative decisions.
The European Commission has agreed to release five documents that the European Citizen Action Service (ECAS) had requested concerning the UK opt-out from the Charter of Fundamental Rights. The Commission had initially refused to release them referring to the need to protect the legal advice it receives and its internal decision-making process.
The European Court of Human Rights is currently overloaded with cases (there were almost 150,000 pending applications at the end of March 2012). Some 90% of all applications are eventually declared inadmissible.
The European Parliament voted this week in favour of the new asylum legislation. The Parliament approved the recast versions of the Dublin Regulation, the Eurodac Regulation, the Asylum Procedures Directive and the Reception Conditions Directive. See the press release of the European Parliament.
The applicants are a married couple of Tajikistani nationality who live in Moscow. Mr. Sidikov was arrested in 2010 and placed in detention pending his extradition to Tajikistan, where he was wanted for charges related to his activity for the Islamic organisation Hizb ut-Tahrir. His extradition was ordered and upheld by courts, but it was not enforced in view of the application for temporary asylum that he lodged in December 2011, which was accepted in August 2012 and grants him protection for one year. Ms.
EUROSUR The Irish Presidency has prepared a document containing the proposals of the Commission and the positions of the European Parliament and of the Council concerning the EUROSUR regulation. The Presidency has also included comments and compromise text proposals and invites delegations to agree with them for the purpose of making further progress in the next trilogue with the European Parliament, which will take place on 27 March.
The LIBE Committee endorsed in a vote on Wednesday the provisional agreements reached by the Council and the Parliament on the Eurodac Regulation and the Asylum Procedures Directive last month. The texts will be put to the plenary vote of the Parliament in June together with the recast Dublin Regulation and Reception Conditions Directive.
In two cases this week, the European Court of Human Rights (ECtHR) condemned Hungary for unlawfully detaining at the Debrecen Reception Centre for Refugees asylum seekers, pending the outcome of their asylum claims, without effective judicial review of their detention. Both cases concerned complaints under Article 5§ 1 of the European Convention on Human Rights (ECHR) (right to liberty and security).
The applicant is an Uzbek national who was arrested in Moscow in June 2010 and placed in custody with a view to his extradition to Kyrgyzstan. He was released one year later, but then placed in custody again pending his extradition to Uzbekistan where he was wanted on fraud charges. An asylum claim he had filed was rejected in May 2011. Mr. Bakoyev alleged that, if extradited to Uzbekistan, he would face risk of ill-treatment and unfair trial. He also complained about his two detention periods pending extradition on account of their unlawfulness and excessive length.
