Last Updated on August 22, 2019 by LawEuro
Information Note on the Court’s case-law 223
November 2018
M.N. and Others v. Belgium (relinquishment) – 3599/18
Article 1
Jurisdiction of States
Refusal to grant visa applications made from the territory of a non-member State on the basis of a risk of ill-treatment: relinquishment in favour of the Grand Chamber
Article 3
Positive obligations
Refusal to grant visa applications made from the territory of a non-member State on the basis of a risk of ill-treatment: relinquishment in favour of the Grand Chamber
Syrian nationals living in Aleppo, the applicants contacted the Belgian Consulate in Beirut in August 2016 requesting short-stay visas on humanitarian grounds, with a view to applying for asylum on arrival in Belgium. Their requests were refused by the Aliens Office (for a similar factual situation, see the judgment of the Court of Justice of the European Union in X and X v. État belge, C-638/16 PPU, 8 March 2017, Information Note 205). Their subsequent appeals were unsuccessful.
Before the European Court, the applicants allege that they were exposed to the risk of ill-treatment contrary to Article 3 of the Convention and did not have an effective remedy in this respect; they consider that certain court decisions initially delivered in their favour remained unjustifiably unenforced. The application was communicated to the respondent Government under Article 1 of the Convention with regard to the scope of Belgium’s jurisdiction and under Articles 3, 6 § 1 and 13 of the Convention in respect of the applicants’ complaints.
On 20 November 2018 the Chamber of the Court to which the case had been allocated relinquished jurisdiction in favour of the Grand Chamber.
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