The caretaker cabinet no longer wants to share the so-called official reports on the situation in asylum seekers’ countries of origin. But that is not allowed, the court in The Hague ruled on Friday in the case of a Syrian asylum seeker.
Such an official report contains a detailed description of the situation in a country. On the basis of this, the Ministry of Asylum and Migration decides, for example, whether a country is safe enough to send back fled asylum seekers.
In April, the caretaker cabinet decided to no longer “actively publish” these official reports. The coalition parties had agreed on this in the outline agreement.
But in that month, the official report on Syria was also due to be published. Eyes were focused on that official report. Because since the fall of the regime of Bashar Al Assad in December, all asylum applications from Syrians have been paused. With the help of this new situation sketch, it will be decided how asylum applications from Syrians will be processed again in the future.
The court ruled on Thursday that the document on Syria must still be made public. It must be able to be added to the file of the Syrian who filed the lawsuit. Without that document, his lawyer cannot properly defend him and the judge cannot properly assess whether a decision is lawful.
The caretaker cabinet pointed out that it is not obliged to make these official reports public. But that is not correct, the judge states. He refers, among other things, to the European rules in this area.
The House of Representatives also reacted with surprise to the decision of the caretaker cabinet. Opposition parties made another attempt to use a motion to get the cabinet to share the documents, but that motion did not receive a majority.
The Ministry of Asylum and Migration reports that it has now received the official report. The ministry is studying the consequences of the court ruling.