Federal Administrative Court - Decision 10 C 50.07

Act Implementing the Convention on the Reduction of Statelessness Article 2
Asylum Procedure Act Section 3 (1), Section 26 (4)
Residence Act Section 60 (1) Sentences 1 and 5, (2) through (7)
Universal Declaration of Human Rights Article 15
Geneva Convention on Refugees Article 1A (2)
Directive 2004/83/EC Article 2 c, Article 4 (3) c, e, Article 9 (1a)
Convention Relating to the Status of Stateless Persons Article 1 (1)

Headwords:
Deprivation of citizenship; administrative deprivation of citizenship; deprivation of citizenship relevant to asylum; refusal of entry; statelessness; de facto state-lessness; de jure statelessness; habitual residence; lawful residence; internal protection; accessibility of alternative refuge.

Headnote:
1. Deprivation of nationality may be a serious violation of basic human rights within the meaning of Article 9 (1) a of Directive 2004/83/EC of 29 April 2004 (known as the 'Qualification Directive').

2. In assessing the severity of the violation of rights caused by a deprivation of citizenship, under Article 4 (3) c of the Qualification Directive the individual posi-tion and personal circumstances of the person concerned must also be taken into account.

3. A person is stateless within the meaning of Section 3 (1) of the Asylum Pro-cedure Act if no state views him or her as a national under its own law, i.e., a de jure stateless person. For de facto stateless persons, therefore, a threat of per-secution must be examined with reference to the state of their de jure national-ity.

4. The habitual residence of a stateless person under Section 3 (1) of the Asy-lum Procedure Act need not be lawful. It is sufficient if the stateless person fo-cused his or her life in the country, and therefore did not merely transiently spend time there, and the competent authorities did not initiate measures to terminate his residence.

Decision of the 10th Division Division of 26 February 2009 Federal Administrative Court 10 C 50.07 (German Version)