The Council of State ruled on a case concerning a beneficiary of humanitarian protection who was denied a travel document by the Police of Trento, as he had not proved that he was unable to obtain a passport from the authorities of his country of origin. Additionally, the document was refused on grounds of the criminal record of the beneficiary. He appealed on grounds that the category of people to which a travel document is granted recently changed from “people to which Italian authorities consider it appropriate to grant the document”, to people that benefit from subsidiary and humanitarian protection. Therefore, it is no longer necessary to prove that a document cannot be granted by the country of origin.

The Council of State agreed with the reasoning of the applicant and noted that the impossibility of having contacts with the country of origin should include those cases in which the institutions of the country of origin make it impossible for the beneficiary to be granted the document, and not only cases in which they would be at risk of persecution upon return to their country. The Council also ruled that the travel document can only be denied in cases of threat to public order and national security, and the two criminal charges of the beneficiary in this case are not serious enough to justify the denial.

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