The European Union Member States are not legally obliged to grant protection to the parents of recognised minors in all cases, the European Court of Justice (ECJ) has ruled.
However, ECJ said that the family unit must be preserved by all the available means.
According to InfoMigrants, in 2007, a legal dispute was initiated by a man from Guinea who reached Belgium. Afterwards, he became the father of two children who were born in Belgium, both of whom were recognised as refugees there. The man from Guinea also aimed to have this status extended to him.
However, on November 23, the Luxembourg court confirmed that while the legal preservations require the preservation and protection of the family unit, they do not mandate extending the same immigration status to the parents.
According to the ECJ, the family unit could be preserved by other means such as by issuing a residence permit for the parents instead of granting them refugee status.
Recently, EU countries have opened their doors to a large number of people seeking international protection.
In this regard, recently, the European Commission proposed several measures to ensure the effectiveness of the Dublin III Regulation.
In February, the President of the European Commission, Ursula von der Leyen, affirmed her dedication to the implementation of the Dublin Roadmap, which was designed to reduce the incentives for secondary movements by fostering enhanced cooperation among the EU Member States.
The document presented today also includes an Annex providing a compilation of the case law of the Court of Justice of the European Union regarding the interpretation of the Dublin III Regulation, with a view to ensuring a swiffer application of the Dublin rules in Member States, by ensuring a higher level of harmonisation in the Member States’ interpretation of these rules.
The figures from the European Union Agency of Statistics, Eurostat, revealed that in August alone, a total of 91,753 first-time applications for international protection were filed in European countries.
Eurostat revealed that such figures account for a 19 per cent increase compared to August 2022 statistics, during which 77,145 asylum applications were registered.
According to Eurostat, in July this year 80,665 first-time asylum applications were registered in EU countries, thus accounting for a 20 per cent increase in comparison to the statistics from July 2022, during which month 67,315 requests were filed.
