Luxembourg – Unaccompanied minors, who arrive in the EU and turn 18 during their asylum process can still be joined by their families, the bloc’s top court ruled on Thursday.
Migration and asylum issues are politically sensitive in the EU, where populist parties have seized on the issue following the arrival of more than one million migrants to the bloc in recent years.
The case relates to an Eritrean asylum seeker, who arrived in the Netherlands in early 2014, aged 17.
She turned 18 in June, four months before being granted a residence permit.
At the end of 2014, an application was submitted on her behalf for her parents and three brothers to join her, but the Dutch authorities turned it down, arguing that she was no longer a minor and, therefore, not entitled to family reunification.
The decision was appealed before a Dutch court, which turned to the European Court of Justice for advice.
The Luxembourg-based judges ruled on Thursday that family reunification claims must be based on a refugee’s date of arrival, as any other system would not guarantee equal treatment or legal certainty.
If the request hinged on the date asylum was granted, it would make the decision dependent on how quickly or slowly the member state had processed the request, opening the possibility of different outcomes for two minors arriving in the EU at the same time, the court argued.
However, the family reunification application must be made within a “reasonable’’ period of three months after being granted refugee status, the judges said.
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