JUDGMENT OF 13. 1. 2021 – CASE C-507/19 BUNDESREPUBLIK DEUTSCHLAND (REFUGEE STATUS OF A STATELESS PERSON OF PALESTINIAN ORIGIN) 25 By judgment of 18 December 2017, the Oberverwaltungsgericht (Higher Administrative Court, Germany) dismissed the appeal brought by the Bundesrepublik Deutschland, represented by the Federal Office for Migration and Refugees, against the decision of the Verwaltungsgericht (Administrative Court), finding, in essence, that, as a stateless person of Palestinian origin, XT had to be regarded as a refugee within the meaning of the legal provisions transposing Article 12(1)(a) of Directive 2011/95 into German law. According to that court, XT had received protection from UNRWA and that protection had ceased for reasons that were independent of his volition. XT’s personal safety was at serious risk when he left Syria, with the result that his departure from that country was involuntary, which was confirmed by the fact that he was granted subsidiary protection. That court also found that, when he left Syria, XT had no access to protection from UNRWA in other fields of that agency’s area of operations and that, before XT’s departure from Syria, the Hashemite Kingdom of Jordan and the Republic of Lebanon had already closed their borders to Palestinian refugees in Syria. 26 The Bundesrepublik Deutschland brought an appeal on a point of law (Revision) against that judgment before the referring court. 27 That court indicates that, on the one hand, no ground for exclusion from refugee status, within the meaning of Article 12(1)(b) and Article 12(2) and (3) of Directive 2011/95, is applicable to XT. On the other hand, XT satisfies the conditions laid down in the first sentence of Article 12(1)(a) of that directive, according to which, in essence, any stateless person of Palestinian origin is excluded from being a refugee if he receives protection or assistance from UNRWA. According to the referring court, first, UNRWA’s mandate was renewed until 30 June 2020, secondly, XT was registered with UNRWA, which is sufficient proof that he indeed received protection or assistance from that agency, and thirdly, XT benefited from that protection or assistance shortly before the submission of his application for international protection, since he was registered as a family member in the Yarmouk UNRWA camp. 28 The referring court, however, has doubts as to whether XT satisfies the conditions concerning the cause of the cessation of the application of that exclusion, laid down in the second sentence of Article 12(1)(a) of Directive 2011/95, according to which, in essence, if the protection or assistance from UNWRA has ceased for any reason, without the position of persons receiving that protection or assistance being definitely settled in accordance with the relevant resolutions adopted by the General Assembly of the United Nations, those persons are ipso facto to be entitled to the benefits of Directive 2011/95. 29 The national court asks, in the first place, whether, in order to determine whether UNRWA’s protection or assistance ceased, when the person concerned left UNRWA’s area of operations, account must be taken, from a territorial point of view, only of the field of that area of operations in which the person concerned had his or her last actual residence or, as it tends to believe, also of other fields of that area of operations. 30 In the latter case, it seeks to determine, in the second place, whether it is appropriate to take account of all the fields making up UNRWA’s area of operations or only certain fields of it and, if so, what the relevant criteria for identifying them are. According to the referring court, account must be taken of the field in which the person concerned had his or her last effective residence and the fields with which that person has a connection. That connection might result, for example, from material links such as a previous stay or the presence of close parents. In addition, the person concerned should reasonably be able to travel to and stay in that field, since registration with UNRWA does not confer any right of residence or authorise movement between different fields of UNRWA’s area of operations. On the other hand, for fields with which the person concerned has never had any personal links, it is so unlikely that the conditions of entry and residence would be met that any consideration of these fields should be excluded from the outset. ECLI:EU:C:2021:3 7