The complainant, residing in Malta on the basis of a Specific Residence Authorisation (SRA), a national form of protection regulated by a separate policy which had replaced the former temporary humanitarian protection for rejected asylum applicants. After two years under this regime, the complainant had to renew his residence permit, however Identity Malta refused to proceed with the renewal, arguing that the complainant did not fulfil the requirements provided for in the most recent SRA policy.

The complainant contested this rejection decision before the International Protection Appeals Tribunal, who annulled it. Identity Malta then contested the annulment of its decision.

In this case, the Court of Appeal upheld the decision of the International Protection Appeals Tribunal, noting that the most recent policy on SRA did not indicate that the new, more restrictive criteria, should be applied when considering renewal requests. The court added that the application of the policy to renewal requests would be unreasonable, as permits granted to beneficiaries by the authorities on the basis of certain criteria would then be withdrawn on the basis of other criteria. Thus, the court reasserted that the new policy should only be applied to first-time applications for SRA.