The Administrative Jurisdiction Division of the Council of State ('the Division') has ruled that the State Secretary of Justice and Security is liable for the unlawful deportation of a man - at the time an asylum-seeker - to Pakistan (the judgment can be found here). The Division ruled that he was entitled to compensation totaling €15,7240, plus statutory interest.
The claimant in this case is a man of Pakistani origin who belongs to the Ahmadi minority. On 18 February 2015 he was forcibly deported, even though he had submitted a new application on 16 February 2015 and no final decision had been rendered yet. Upon arrival in Pakistan, he was immediately detained and interrogated by the authorities. A few days after his release, he was severely beaten on the street by a group of Muslim fundamentalists. After he was released from the hospital, he went into hiding. Eventually and eventually managed to leave Pakistan with the help of his family. In September 2015, after a months-long and life-threatening journey via Iran, Turkey and Greece, he finally managed to reach Europe again. On 8 December 2015, the State Secretary decided to grant the claimant a residence permit after all.
The Division agrees with the claimant and the court of first instance (see here and here) that the deportation was unlawful because on 8 December 2015, it was retroactively determined that the claimant was a refugee at the time of deportation. This means that the deportation was unlawful and that the State Secretary is liable for damages. With regard to the compensation, the Division considers that although the claimant could not provide evidence of the mistreatment in Pakistan, the violation of Article 3 of the ECHR and Article 33 of the Refugee Convention (the prohibition of refoulement) justify compensation for immaterial damages on the basis of Article 6:106 of the Dutch Civil Code. This is related to the fact that such a violation by definition brings about feelings of fear, insecurity and uncertainty.
The Division awarded a mere €500 to compensate the claimant for the journey that he had to make to flee Pakistan a second time after his deportation. This is the price of a plane ticket from Islamabad to Amsterdam. This amount in awarded damages is problematic because refugees rely on clandestine travel routes to reach Europe. The prices that have to be paid for these clandestine trips are - as is widely known - many times higher than the prices of a regular plane ticket. Obviously, it is impossbile to provide concrete evidence of this. The Division could have come to an estimate based on the generally available information about the costs of such trips, as the claimant had requested. Nonetheless, the claimant is pleased with the judgment and the confirmation that his deportation was unlawful.
The claimant was represented in this case by lawyer Tom de Boer.