In its judgment from 27 June 2017 (File number 2 LB 117/17), the 2nd Senate of the Higher Administrative Court of Lower Saxony turned down an action lodged by a Syrian national who had claimed he was entitled to refugee protection status, which is a higher form of protection than the subsidiary protection status he was granted.
The Higher Administrative Court of Lower Saxony thereby reversed the decision by the lower Administrative Court of Oldenburg, which had originally supported the Syrian national’s claim. The Higher Administrative Court of Lower Saxony came to a different conclusion about the form of protection Syrians are entitled to than the Higher Administrative Court of Hesse, which had granted refugee protection status to a Syrian national on 6 June 2017
The 2nd Senate did not permit submission of an appeal on points of law to the Federal Administrative Court.
In two other cases in Lower Saxony (File numbers 2 LB 91/17 and 2 LB 398/15), the Federal Office for Migration and Refugees (BAMF) withdrew its appeal during their respective hearings. This was likely due to the Higher Administrative Court indicating in the hearings that BAMF would likely lose their appeal because there were special circumstances in these individual cases which would justify granting the asylum-seekers full refugee protection status. Thus, the judgments issued in these two cases by the Administrative Court of Oldenburg in Lower Saxony are final and binding.
