On the 23rd of February 2023, the Administrative Court of Düsseldorf delivered its judgment 8 K 3701/22.A. The case concerned a Pakistani national who entered Germany with a Schengen visa issued by Italy. He applied for asylum in Germany, but the authorities rejected his application on the basis that Italy was the responsible Member State and issued a deportation order.
The Court declared that, as discussed in detail at the hearing, there is sufficient information to justify that Italy does not respect asylum applicants’ rights under the EU Charter and the ECHR. The Court noted that the reception conditions for Dublin returnees have deteriorated significantly under the new Italian government. Furthermore, the Italian Ministry of the Interior requested, by letters of 5 and 7 December 2022, to temporarily suspend Dublin transfers due to reasons relating to the unavailability of reception facilities and stated that these facilities should be reorganised due to the high number of arrivals and a shortage of reception places. Consequently, the Court ruled that the Italian Government acknowledged the lack of accommodation for Dublin returnees and so the basic conditions (‘bread, bed, soap’) were not met at the time of the hearing. The Court ruled that that decision was therefore unlawful.
Subsequently, the Court declared that it is not certain whether the transfer to Italy can be carried out within the six-month transfer period as required under the Dublin Regulation. The Court understood that the Ministry’s statements only implied a temporary suspension of transfers to reorganise admissions however the passage of three months contradicts that the reorganisation can be managed before the expiry of the transfer deadline, taken into account that the current number of asylum applications in Italy – and thus also their accommodation needs – has increased significantly in 2023.
Based on an unofficial translation from within the ELENA team.