EU Court Rules Asylum Seekers Can Face Detention Over National Security, Public Order

[Ian Smith son]

Europe Refugee Crisis: EU Court Rules Asylum Seekers Can Face Detention Over National Security, Public Order

The European Union Court of Justice announced Monday that asylum seekers can be detained on grounds of national security or public order. The ruling came in the case of an individual who applied for asylum to the Netherlands in 1995, was rejected in 1996, and then re-applied in 2012 and 2013.

In 2014, the Dutch State Secretary for Security and Justice rejected the last of these applications, ordered the individual to leave the EU immediately and imposed a 10-year entry ban on him. According to the court, the applicant was convicted on 21 charges, and had been sentenced to fines and terms of imprisonment for various offences — mostly theft — between 1999 and 2015.

In 2015, the applicant was arrested for theft and failure to comply with the entry ban imposed on him, following which he was sentenced to a further term of imprisonment. He was later held in detention as an asylum seeker, because he had made a fourth application for asylum while serving his prison sentence, the court said.

Europe Refugee Crisis: EU Court Rules Asylum Seekers Can Face Detention Over National Security, Public Order