The case concerned a request for urgent interim measures submitted by an Afghan national against a Dublin transfer to Austria. The Dublin transfer was accepted by Austria, but it has been annulled in court by decision of 20 January 2021, when the judicial authority decided that Italy had the competence to process the asylum application. In that decision, the court also urged the competent authority to close the proceedings for determining the responsible member State and to start processing the international protection procedure.

The applicant has submitted a request for interim measures before the Tribunal of Rome because despite a favourable judicial decision to initiate proceedings in Italy, the police station/territorial commission did not invite him for an interview because the competent Dublin unit did not de the competence of the Italian authority to examine the application. Thus, the applicant was awaiting, after 1.5 years, for Italy’s declaration of having competence to examine his asylum request.

The Tribunal of Rome rejected the Dublin unit argument on suspensive effect of appeal, because the appeal brought by the applicant before the Court of Cassation did not have a suspensive effect and the law does not expressly provide for the possibility of requesting such a suspension. In addition, the Civil Court rejected the arguments presented by the Dublin unit, according to which the submission of an appeal before the Court of Cassation in the Dublin procedure would entail the automatic suspension of the procedure itself.

The Tribunal of Rome allowed the interim measure request as justified and ordered the Dublin unit to close the administrative procedure aimed at determining the country responsible for examining the applicant’s application for international protection, as per the order of the Tribunal of Rome of 20 January 2021 which indicated the jurisdiction of Italy. The Tribunal of Rome ordered immediate access of the applicant to the procedure for granting international protection and allocation of his case the competent Territorial Commission.

The Tribunal of Rome noted that the applicant is an Afghan national, of Hazara ethnicity and took note of the updated country of origin information consulted, including the European Union Agency for Asylum, Afghanistan— Security Situation,                             August 2022. The Tribunal of Rome added that the applicant lacked access to the asylum procedure for more than 1.5 years and thus he could not benefit of the rights enshrined for asylum applicants as provided by the national legislation.