A., a Venezuelan national, applied for international protection in Spain on 2 March 2022. By decision of 10 November 2022, the Ministry of the Interior (the Ministry) declared the international protection procedure implicitly withdrawn due to the applicant’s failure to respond to a request for documentation, including a passport copy and supporting evidence for his asylum claim. 

The applicant filed an administrative appeal, which remained unanswered, and subsequently challenged the decision  before the National High Court. The applicant claimed that he suffered from chronic kidney disease requiring regular treatment in a health centre and that a return to Venezuela would expose him to the risk of inhuman or degrading treatment due to medical care shortages in his country of origin.

The National High Court noted that, upon lodging his application, the applicant had been informed of his rights and duties, including the obligation to respond to the administration’s requirements. The court then reviewed whether the notification of the documentation request complied with the procedural requirements established in Article 27 of the Asylum Act (Law 12/2009) and Article 42 of the Administrative Procedure Act (Law 39/2015), that require two unsuccessful postal notification attempts followed by edictal notification via public posting before declaring a procedure implicitly withdrawn. In this case, no such edictal notification was issued.

In conclusion, the National High Court overturned the Ministry’s decision of 10 November 2022, declaring it null due to improper notification. The court did not, however, address the substantive asylum grounds related to the applicant’s health condition.