ASYLUM/GREECE : TRANSFER OF ASYLUM SEEKERS: COURT SETS LIMITS.

• Position: Brief article

An asylum seeker cannot be transferred to a member state of the Union where he runs a real risk of being subjected to inhuman and degrading treatments, said the EU court in its 21 December 2011 ruling (Cases C-411/10 and C-493/10). The case is a sensitive one politically speaking: it involves Greece - a country whose asylum system is being singled out as the black sheep' of the EU - and it concerns the controversial Dublin II Regulation, currently being revised. The Appeals Court of the UK and the High Court of Ireland referred a question to the EU court for a preliminary hearing. In both cases, third-country nationals transited via Greece before proceeding on to one of these two countries to lodge an asylum application. The authorities turned down these applications and adopted transfer decisions in Greece - the state indicated as responsible according to the Dublin II Regulation. The asylum seekers are contesting the transfer decisions on the grounds that the procedures and asylum conditions in Greece are inappropriate.

Both courts have referred questions to the EU court to...