The case concerned a second appeal submitted by the BAMF after the Regional Administrative Court of Hannover dismissed a Dublin transfer to Slovenia on 21 December 2022. The Regional Administrative Court of Hannover, upholding the applicants submissions, had decided that the Dublin transfer would put the applicant at risk of indirect refoulment and treatment contrary to Article 3 ECHR and 4 EU Charter due to pushbacks by Slovenian authorities.

The Higher Administrative Court of Lower Saxony reiterated the standard to be observed in cases related to Dublin proceedings as defined by the Federal Administrative Court in a judgment of 19 January 2022 and 7 March 2022, by referring to the principle of interstate mutual trust and the rebuttable presumption that the treatment of applicants for international protection each individual Member State is in line with the requirements of the Charter, the Geneva Convention and the European Convention on Human Rights (CJEU, Bashar Ibrahim (C‑297/17), Mahmud Ibrahim, Fadwa Ibrahim, Bushra Ibrahim, Mohammad Ibrahim, Ahmad Ibrahim (C‑318/17), Nisreen Sharqawi, Yazan Fattayrji, Hosam Fattayrji v Bundesrepublik Deutschland, and Bundesrepublik Deutschland v Taus Magamadov, Joined Cases C‑297/17, C‑318/17, C‑319/17 and C‑438/17, 19 March 2019. The court also held that this presumption does not apply when there are systemic deficiencies in the asylum and reception system in a Member State and it can be assumed factually that the person concerned would be at risk of being subject to inhuman or degrading treatment at the time of the transfer, during the asylum procedure or after its end.

Based on the above, the Higher Administrative Court of Lower Saxony ruled that the Regional Administrative Court of Hannover had adopted its decision on the basis of insufficient factual findings and by applying an incorrect legal standard. According to the Higher Administrative Court's considerations, the Regional Administrative Court did not sufficiently distinguish between Dublin returnees and asylum seekers who have become victims of chain deportations, for example in the context of informal transfers between Austria or Italy and Slovenia, when assessing risk of push-backs and indirect refoulment. The Higher Administrative court therefore admitted the leave to appeal and granted the BAMF one month to submit the justification on the merits.