The case concerned a request for suspension of a Dublin transfer to Lithuania. The applicant claimed that upon transfer to Lithuania he would be placed in detention and be exposed to treatment contrary to Article 3 ECHR.

The Regional Administrative Court of Karlsruhe allowed the suspension of the Dublin transfer and found that the competent authority has to determine whether the applicant would be imprisoned in Lithuania under Article 8 APD, without a proper examination of his case and in violation of article 6 EU Charter. The regional court noted that the jurisprudence is divergent amongst lower courts on transfer to Lithuania and that the competent authority would have to decide whether Article 3(2) of the Dublin III Regulation is applicable (principle of mutual trust between Member States) or the applicant shall request for Article 17(1) of the Dublin III Regulation to be applied. The court noted that CJEU ruled on 30 June 2022 in the case  M.A. v State Border Protection Service at the Ministry of the Interior of the Republic of Lithuania, C-72/22 PPU, ECLI:EU:C:2022:505, 30 June 2022, on access to procedure and detention of asylum applicants in the context of mass influx of migrants. It further assessed the situation in the country and in the detention centers and found that civil society organisations’ reports mention a decrease of number of detainees and improvements in the detention conditions, However, there is an open factual question on whether Dublin returnees are at risk of unlawful detention. Despite queries to various organisations, there is no predictability as to the situation of Dublin returnees. According to reports from the Lithuanian Red Cross of 15 February 2023. Dublin returnees are allegedly brought before courts in a systematic manner upon arrival in Lithuania and subject to ‘alternative to detention’, which in practice is imprisonment because it implies placement in a center where freedom of movement is restricted to the area of that center. Also, Amnesty International mentioned that due to the legal changes of July 2021, during a declared martial law, state of emergency or a state of emergency due to a mass influx of foreigners, both asylum seekers and irregular migrants will be temporarily in centers, transit zones or to be housed at border crossings without freedom of movement within Lithuania.

The court considered that the transfer decision issued on 19 January 2023 is based on outdated information regrading the situation in Lithuania, and outdated jurisprudence from 2017. Thus, the regional administrative court concluded that there is a need for further clarifications on whether asylum applicants transferred to Lithuania would be at risk of systematic deprivation of freedom of movement while placed in accommodation centers in a situation similar to the one in the judgement M.A. of the CJEU of 30 June 2022, C-72/22.