5:45 p.m., 17/03/2016
Relating to a Pakistani citizen’s case, all the points of the Hungarian reasoning were approved by the Court of Justice of the European Union, thus Hungary is able to expel migrants to safe third countries legitimately in the framework of Dublin System.
Responding to the huge migration flow arriving to Hungary (beside other measures granting the safety of Hungary), the Hungarian government listed the safe countries of origin and the safe third countries in a Government Decree of July, 2015. According to the aforementioned Decree, beside numerous countries, Serbia is considered to be a safe country of origin and a safe third country – this fact has an importance even in the abovementioned case which can be originated to last August.
The Court of Justice of the European Union in its sentence – Case C-695/15 PPU; Shiraz Baig Mirza contra the Office of Immigration and Nationality – that was pronounced on the 17th of March, 2016, recorded the accordance – approving all the points of the Hungarian reasoning – between the Hungarian regulation, its practice (this makes possible the so-called inadmissibility investigation of the applicants taken over in the framework of Dublin System) and the Dublin III Regulation and the relevant asylum directives. An application may be considered as inadmissible if the applicant has arrived from a safe third country and still has submitted an asylum application in one of the Member States.
Accordingly, Hungarian authorities are able to investigate the adaptability of the safe third country’s principle even after the Dublin reception. If the conditions are met, Hungarian authorities may order legitimately the applicant’s expulsion to that safe country.
In the case C-695/15 PPU, a Pakistani citizen is affected who entered to Hungary illegally from Serbia in August, 2015. The aforementioned person submitted an application for international protection and after that – without waiting for the procedure’s outcome – left the country and entered to the Czech Republic, without permission. The person in question was delivered to the Hungarian authorities in the framework of Dublin Regulation to adjudge his application. The application was rejected due to inadmissibility reasons and the Pakistani citizen in question was expelled to Serbia which is considered to be a safe third country. The applicant went to court against this decision.
Suspending the procedure, the Debrecen Administrative and Labour Court – which court proceeded in this case - requested a preliminary ruling from the Court of Justice of the European Union in December, 2015: first of all, they required a guideline about the fact if – after the reception in the framework if the Dublin System - a Member State is able to investigate if the applicant – who has submitted an application for international protection – has arrived from a safe third country or not.
In its sentence the Court of Justice of the European Union records the followings: the fact that a responsible Member State – in accordance with the Dublin Regulations – takes an applicant from another Member State (for example, if a person gets back to the location of his/her first application if he/she didn’t wait for the outcome of the proceedings and left that place without permission), does not preclude that the applicant thereafter will be sent to a safe third country according to the Dublin III Regulation.
(www.kormany.hu; Ministry of Justice)
