A. M. v. SWITZERLAND
Inadmissible
Branko Lubarda;Dmitry Dedov;George Nicolaou;Helen Keller;Helena Jäderblom;Johannes Silvis;Luis López Guerra
1. The applicant, Mr A.M., is a Syrian national of Kurdish origin, who was born in 1993 and lives in Geneva. The President granted the applicant’s request for his identity not to be disclosed to the public (Rule 47 § 4 of the Rules of Court). The applicant was represented before the Court by Mr B. Wijkstrom, a lawyer practising in Geneva. 3. The applicant arrived in Italy on an unknown date. His fingerprints were recorded in the EURODAC system on 17 December 2012. On 29 December 2012 the applicant entered Switzerland from Italy and sought asylum the same day. Soon after reaching Geneva, the applicant started to suffer from mental illness. 4. The applicant’s sister had arrived in Switzerland on 19 December 2012, had applied for asylum and had received a temporary permit which entitled her to remain on Swiss territory for the duration of her own asylum application. She was married to a man who had been granted temporary refugee status. 5. On 17 January 2013, the Swiss Federal Migration Office (“FMO”) requested that its Italian counterparts take charge of the applicant’s asylum request, pursuant to Article 10 § 1 of Regulation no. 343/2003/EC (the “Dublin Regulation”). On 21 February 2013, the Italian immigration authorities explicitly accepted the FMO’s request. On 22 February 2013, the applicant’s asylum request was rejected by the FMO on the basis of the fact that he had entered Switzerland from another “Dublin” State. The FMO refused the application of the humanitarian clause provided for in § 15 of the Dublin Regulation. 6. On 24 April 2013, the applicant was diagnosed with post-traumatic stress disorder, depression and back pain. He was put on a course of weekly psychiatric sessions and was given an anti-depressant (Zoloft, 50mg/day). According to the medical report, the stabilization of his psychological and social environment was a precondition for the successful outcome of the applicant’s therapy. According to a subsequent medical report, dated 6 June 2013, the applicant showed some risk of self-harm, which could go as far as suicide if he were returned to Italy, where he had been allegedly abused by the police. The report clearly stated, however, that the applicant’s death thoughts were passive and did not disclose any concrete plan (“sans projet concret”). 7. The applicant appealed against the decision of the FMO to the Federal Administrative Court. The appeal was rejected on 28 May 2013. 8. The relevant domestic law is set out in the Court’s judgment in the case of Tarakhel v. Switzerland ([GC], no. 29217/12, §§ 22-23 and 26-27, 4 November 2014). 9. The relevant instruments and principles of European Union law are set out in the same judgment (§§ 28-36). 10. In particular, the Court recalls that the Dublin Regulation is applicable to Switzerland under the terms of the association agreement of 26 October 2004 between the Swiss Confederation and the European Community regarding criteria and mechanisms for establishing the State responsible for examining a request for asylum lodged in a Member State or in Switzerland (OJ L 53 of 27 February 2008). The Dublin Regulation was recently replaced by Regulation (EU) No. 604/2013 of the European Parliament and of the Council of 26 June 2013 (the “Dublin III Regulation”), which is designed to make the Dublin system more effective and to strengthen the legal safeguards for persons subject to the Dublin procedure. 11. The Dublin III Regulation entered into force on 1 January 2014 and was passed into law by the Swiss Federal Council on 7 March 2014. 12. A detailed description of the asylum procedure and the legal framework and organisation of the reception system for asylum seekers in Italy is also set out in the Tarakhel judgment (§§ 36-50).