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An Independent TD has said that today’s ruling from the European Court of Justice (ECJ) , on granting refugee status to teenage female asylum seekers who say they would be at risk if returned to their own countries because they have adopted equality norms in their EU host countries, was a wide-ranging judgement and a “warning” to Ireland and other member states about where “the real power to set asylum policy lies”.
Offaly TD Carol Nolan was speaking after it was reported that the EU Court ruling “could have far-reaching implications for the granting of refugee status where female applicants in particular are at risk of persecution in their home countries”.
The case before the ECJ concerned by two female Iraqi teenagers who had come to the Netherlands in 2015 and who argued that their asylum application should be upheld because they risked persecution, if deported to Iraq, because they had adopted the equality norms of their host countries.
Girls and women did not enjoy the same rights as men there, lawyers for the girls argued, and the teenagers, if deported, would be deprived of their rights to associate with boys, to participate in sport, to study, to marry and, if so, to whom, and to work outside the home.
The court heard that, if they returned to Iraq, the girls would be denied the right to decide and express their own political and religious views.
Their application for international protection had been rejected by the Dutch authorities, but they had applied again arguing that because of they had lived in the Netherlands so long they had adopted the norms, values and conduct of that country for young people of their age – and that they would unable to conform to the norms in Iraq where men and women did not have the same rights.
However, the Dutch authorities rejected these arguments for asylum, and the case was eventually brought before the European Court of Justice – so that the EU court could decide on whether an EU directive on international protection, which lays down the conditions for granting refugee status to third country nationals, was being adhered to.
Under that EU directive, refugee status should be granted where an applicant from a third country shows they are persecuted for reasons of race, religion, nationality, political opinion or membership of a particular social group.
The ECJ today ruled that women and girls who have – over a prolonged stay in a member state – come to identify with the fundamental value of equality between women and men could be seen as belonging to “a particular social group”.
The court also said that the authorities in any EU state “must take into account” the “best interests” of a minor when adjudicating on the merits of an application.
Responding to today’s ruling, Deputy Nolan said that while the natural instinct of every person would be in favour of protecting equality for women and girls, her concern was with the EU Court deciding asylum policy for sovereign states.
” My concern here is that this is yet another example of how increasingly restricted states are becoming in terms of being able to set the conditions that are applicable to their own asylum processes,” she told Gript.
“The ‘values’ of Iraq are now dictating the shape of Dutch asylum policy. I cannot see how that will be productive in the long term given how it will achieve nothing but to further undermine member states and indeed the European Court of Justice itself.”
“Of course people should have the right to freely associate and hold and express their own opinions, but this wide ranging judgement is essentially a public rebuke to the Netherlands and a warning to other EU member states, including Ireland, about where the real power to set asylum policy lies,” she said.
“The ruling is unmistakably a further threat to our sovereignty in deciding how asylum applications are processed,” she added.
Controversy regarding surging asylum application numbers has led to growing public concern in recent years across EU member states. In this country, despite large majorities in opinion polls saying the country has taken “too many refugees”, the government has insisted that its international obligations require it to accept all applications for asylum.
Asked if the government would consider whether some "international obligations" were actually outdated and bad for Ireland, Fine Gael Minister Heather Humphreys said: "Ireland is a very proud & active member of the EU. We make decisions collectively."
— gript (@griptmedia) May 9, 2024
Question by @Ben_Scallan. pic.twitter.com/Xz96Q18nuq
In May of this year, the EU Council adopted what it calls “a landmark reform” of the European asylum and migration system by signing off on ten legislative “A items” of the controversial EU Migration pact.
The Council says that the pact amounts to a “complete overhaul of EU asylum and migration system” – however, critics have argued that signing up to the pact hands over border security to the European Union and removes power to regulate migration from individual member states.
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