The applicant, Afghan national, obtained the refugee status in the Netherlands and by decision of 8 July 2020, the State Secretary for Justice and Security withdrew the temporary asylum residence permit granted to the applicant. The Court of the Hague rejected the appeal of the applicant against the decision of 8 July 2020 as inadmissible because it was time-barred. The applicant appealed further before the Council of State.
The Council of State does not conduct a full and ex-nunc examination of a case, but it cannot rule out on appeal the fact that the overall situation in the country of origin of an applicant will seriously deteriorate.
Although an applicant provides little or no information on the overall situation in the country of origin, while generally known information clearly shows that the situation has deteriorated seriously, the Council of State will also take this deterioration into account in its assessment and will give the parties the opportunity to take a position on that deterioration.
Based on general news and reports, it was noted that a major change of regime took place in Afghanistan in the summer of 2021 when the Taliban took over the power in Afghanistan. In view of the radical change of the regime in Afghanistan, it is yet unclear what consequences this could have for the applicant if he returns to his country and the Secretary of State will have to investigate this further.
The Council of State allowed the appeal, annulled the decision of the court, and the decision of 8 July 2020, and referred the case back to the State Secretary for a new decision, in which he must deal with the changed situation in Afghanistan and its consequences.
The Council of State referred to its previous decision of 22 June 2022 (State Secretary v Applicant) when it ruled that the administrative court must disapply a national procedural rule if there are circumstances as referred to in paragraph 45 of the judgment of the ECtHR of 19 February 1998, Bahaddar v Netherlands, to prevent a potential violation of Article 3 of the ECHR.