The case concerned an Eritrean national, women who has obtained subsidiary protection in Germany but has further appealed against the decision as she sought to obtain refugee protection. The Higher Administrative Court rejected her leave to appeal and maintained the decision of the Administrative Court of Hanover.

The applicant claimed that she fears persecution on grounds of gender-based violence for being a woman in the national service.

The High Administrative Court noted that the question raised by the applicant as of fundamental importance has been already answered unanimously in the jurisprudence of the higher administrative courts. Particularly, the question of whether women in the Eritrean national service can be regarded as a particular social group was answered in the negative and there is no further need for clarification in the present case.

The Court mentioned that for the "particular social group" requirement for refugee recognition there is the element of a "clearly defined identity" that cannot be satisfied solely by the fact that a large number of people are affected in a comparable way by an act of persecution. The Court further mentioned that  persecution based solely on gender relates to a particular social group only if the group is regarded as a different group by the society surrounding them.

Women in the Eritrean national service does not constitute a particular social group as the clearly defined identity is missing and they are not regarded as different by the rest of Eritrean society. To underline this aspect, the Court referred to evidence that sexual assaults occur to women and girls in and outside of the national service and additionally it occurs to male conscripts in the national service. However, the alleged sexual assaults do not occur because women are perceived as different for being women in the national service.
 
The Court furthermore relied on evidence and country of origin information provided by  the  Human Rights Watch, Amnesty International and EUAA (EASO, Country of Origin Information Report: Eritrea National service, exit, and return, September 2019) to determine that although the applicant could not be granted refugee status on account of the particular social group requirement, women who are called to the military part of the national service in particular have a considerable probability of serious harm from sexual assault by superiors and that due to the numerous reports of these widespread assaults there is no reason to believe that this information outdated. Consequently, the applicant has correctly been granted subsidiary protection.