BAMF submitted an appeal before the Higher Administrative Court of Lower Saxony against the regional administrative court decision to grant international protection to an Eritrean national on the basis of the risk for the applicant, a single mother with a child, of being conscripted into the civilian component of the national military service upon return to Eritrea.
The Higher Administrative Court dismissed the request considering that the BAMF request did not raise any need for clarifications or a legal matter of fundamental importance. The higher court considered that BAMF did not make the distinction in its reasoning on the actual situation in Eritrea namely that women, if they become pregnant or marry, are exempted from the military service, meaning from the military part but they are not exempted from conscription in the civilian part of the national service. The High Administrative Court considered that the lower administrative court correctly assessed the situation of the applicant and made a clear distinction between the military part and the civilian part of the national service, on basis of various COI reports, including Eritrea: National Service, exit and entry, January 2020, and EASO, Eritrea: Country Focus, May 2015.
The Higher Administrative Court stated that the appeal lodged by BAMF was not admissible because it did not demonstrate a need for clarification with regard to the assumption that a mother with a child would be threatened with being drafted into the civilian part of the national service, with a considerable likelihood, if she is returned to Eritrea.
The Higher Administrative Court considered that BAMF did not differentiate between the military and the civilian components and showed that the Federal Foreign Office report of November 2020 as amended on 25 January 2021 on the situation of asylum and deportation in Eritrea stated that women are usually dismissed from the military or the “National Service” in the event of marriage or pregnancy, but this primarily concerns the military component of the National Service, which does not exclude further work in the civilian component of the National Service.
The appeal lodged by BAMF was dismissed.