European Court of Human Rights to consider France's refusal to grant asylum to a man from Darfur and the risks facing him if he is returned to Sudan
The case concerns the refusal to grant asylum to a man from Darfur and the risks facing him if he is returned to Sudan.
The ECtHR states:
The applicant is a Sudanese national. His family come from Darfur and belong to the Midob ethic group. The Sudanese authorities arrested him on two occasions, in particular because of his Darfuri origin and his supposed links with rebel groups in Darfur. On his arrival in France the applicant was immediately arrested. He was taken into police custody, remanded in custody and then placed in administrative detention. He explains that he was only able to lodge an asylum application once in the detention centre. His application was processed according to the fast-track procedure, then rejected.
Relying on Article 3 (prohibition of inhuman and degrading punishment) of the Convention, he argues that, if returned to Sudan, he would be subjected to inhuman or degrading treatment. Relying on Article 13 (right to an effective remedy), he adds that he has had no effective remedy in France by which to submit that complaint, on account of the fast-track procedure used to examine his application. He complains that that procedure should not have been applied to his case and that it lacked sufficient safeguards.
The application was lodged with the European Court of Human Rights on 16 February 2009, communicated to the authorities on 12 May 2009 and declared admissible on 14 December 2010.
Judge to the European Court of Human Rights with respect to Malta, Vincent A. De Gaetano, recently noted that "[r]emarkably there does not appear to be any significant Strasbourg case dealing with Darfur refugees" [see 'Darfur and the European Court of Human Rights' in the March 2011 issue of The British Journal of Sociology available at http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/j.1468-4446.2010.01351.x/full]
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