A Ukrainian national requested international protection in the Czech Republic. His request was rejected by the Ministry of the Interior as inadmissible as Poland was determined as the state responsible under Article 3 of the Dublin III Regulation, where he had previously lodged an application for international protection. The decision was made on the grounds that there were no serious reasons to believe that Poland, as defined by Article 3, paragraph 2 of the Dublin III Regulation, has systemic flaws in its asylum procedure and in the reception conditions for applicants, resulting in a risk of inhuman or degrading treatment within the meaning of Article 4 of the EU Charter of Fundamental Rights. The applicant appealed the decision of the Ministry of the Interior before the Regional Court of Ostrava, who accepted the claim, annulled the contested decision and returned the case to the Ministry of the Interior for further proceedings.
The Ministry of the Interior contested the court’s ruling arguing that the court did not provide enough relevant reports and did not assess the situation on the ground in Poland. According to the Supreme Administrative Court, the Regional Court only used information from the Asylum Department and Migration Policy of the Ministry of the Interior (OAMG) Poland, dated 10 August 2020. This document only gave a general overview of Poland's asylum system and legal framework; it did not assess any flaws in the asylum procedure.
The applicant presented several documents, including a report by the European Council for Refugees and Displaced Persons, articles by the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees, and a judgement from the Court of Appeal of the Netherlands, in which he identified specific facts and attempted to show the existence of systemic flaws. The court determined that these documents were sufficient.
The Russian invasion of Ukraine, a new fact that occurred in the applicant’s country of origin after the contested decision was issued on 25 February 2022, was also taken into consideration by the court within the meaning of Article 46 paragraph 3 of the Asylum Procedure Directive, in considering ex-nunc information in whether an increase in the number of Ukrainian refugees has put a burden on the Polish asylum system.
The Supreme Administrative Court accepted the appeal, overturned the Regional Court’s decision, and returned the matter to the court. The regional court would have to use the documents cited by the complainant in the subsequent proceedings, as well as up-to-date information about the country of origin, to determine whether the number of people arriving in Poland from Ukraine are sufficient to support the complainant's assertion that systemic flaws exist.
The Supreme Administrative Court further ruled that it will be up to the regional court to deal with the issue of suspension of the international protection proceedings if the applicant asks for temporary protection according to Act No. 65/2022, the national law implementing the EU Temporary Directive.