The applicants, Afghan nationals who were granted international protection in France, submitted an urgent request before the Council of State to order the Prime Minister, the Minister for Europe and Foreign Affairs and the Minister of the Interior to add their family members (spouses and children) to the repatriation scheme announced by the President of France. The applicants requested that the authorities should initiate accelerated procedures for the verification of documents of their family members in order to be issued visas for the repatriation with the flights organised by the military, in rotations since 15 August 2021. The applicants invoked the right to family life and family reunification (being separated for 2 years) and the current situation in Afghanistan, including the risk for the children to be deprived of schooling and threats to physical and metal integrity of their family members, to justify the urgency of their application.

The Minister of the Interior submitted observations and requested the rejection of the application because the measures requested were unnecessary in light of the situation in Kabul and argued that the national authorities were taking all the necessary steps for repatriation of the persons concerned.

The judge noted that since the consular activity in Kabul had ceased, no visa was required for entry to France and since 15 August 2021, persons present in the Kabul airport, in the compound dedicated to France and eligible for family reunification, irrespective of visa, are taken care of by the French military. Consequently, the request related to visas and verification of documents proving family ties for the purposes of being issued a visa was rejected.

With regard to the request to ensure access to family members of Afghan nationals reportedly eligible for family reunification to the vicinity of Kabul airport, the judge stated that this competence is related to the organisation of the evacuation of Afghan nationals from Kabul and falls within France's competence related to international relations, and administrative jurisdictions are not competent. Moreover, the judge noted that the French authorities had already received 160 000 similar referrals by email or telephone to the crisis and support centre and it did not result from the investigations that national authorities failed to treat the requests with due diligence.