In France, the National Court of Asylum (CNDA) has just announced that it has granted subsidiary protection, a form of asylum, to a man from Khan Younès. The CNDA considers that its region is experiencing a situation of indiscriminate violence of exceptional intensity. However, asylum was initially refused to this thirty-year-old.
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Upon his arrival in France in 2021, the young man requested refugee status. He says he is threatened in the Gaza Strip, he fears reprisals from Hamas for the political opinions attributed to him.
His case is not strong enough, the evidence is lacking, the information is too fragmentary and his request is rejected. He then tried to appeal to the National Court of Asylum.
Case law
The answer came this week: for the same reasons as at first instance, he cannot benefit from refugee status. But between 2021 and today, the situation in the Gaza Strip has changed significantly. And the CNDA underlines this in its decision: the thirty-year-old faces a serious threat to his life simply because of his presence on the territory. Subsidiary protection is therefore granted to him. This is the other form of asylum in France.
This decision should set a precedent for all cases concerning people from the Gaza Strip. At the beginning of January, for a level of violence also considered indiscriminate and exceptional, the CNDA had granted protection to nationals of North Darfur. At the beginning of December, it was those in east-central Burkina Faso.
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