(Article 15 (b)) or (for civilians) a serious and individual threat to life due to international or internal
armed conflict (Article 15 (c)).347 Beneficiaries of subsidiary protection are entitled to
residence permits lasting at least one year, and in some cases, travel documents, as
well as other benefits.348
Article 78 of the Treaty on the Functioning of the European Union also requires
that the EU implement a policy for asylum as well as subsidiary protection and
temporary protection which ensures that Member States will observe the principle
of non-refoulement.349
2.2.5. Bolbol v. Bevándorlási és Állampolgársági Hivatal (Office of
Immigration and Nationality) (Case C-31/09)
Ms. Bolbol, a stateless person of Palestinian origin, left the Gaza Strip for Hungary
in January 2007. She obtained a residence permit but also applied for asylum on the
grounds that she was a Palestinian residing outside the area of UNRWA operations
and was fleeing unsafe conditions in the Gaza Strip due to the conflict between Fatah
and Hamas. Her application for asylum was denied on the grounds that “the second
subparagraph of Article 1D of the Geneva Convention does not require unconditional
recognition as a refugee but defines the category of persons to whom the provisions
of the Geneva Convention apply.”350 Ms. Bolbol appealed the denial of asylum.
Three questions came before the Court of Justice of the European Union (CJEU) in
this case, decided on 17 June 2010.
The CJEU was asked, for the purposes of Article 12(1)(a) of Directive 2004/83/
EC, to address the following:
1.
“Must someone be regarded as a person receiving the protection and
assistance of a United Nations agency merely by virtue of the fact that he is
entitled to assistance or protection or is it also necessary for him actually to
avail himself of that protection or assistance?”
2.
“Does cessation of the agency's protection or assistance mean residence
outside the agency's area of operations, cessation of the agency and cessation
of the possibility of receiving the agency's protection or assistance or,
possibly, an objective obstacle such that the person entitled thereto is unable
to avail himself of that protection or assistance?”
3.
“Do the benefits of the directive mean recognition as a refugee, or either
of the two forms of protection covered by the directive (recognition as a
refugee and the grant of subsidiary protection), according to the choice made
347
Ibid., Article 15.
See ibid., Article 24-25; see also European Agency for Fundamental Rights. and Council of Europe,
Handbook on European Law Relating to Asylum, Borders and Immigration, June 2013, http://fra.
europa.eu/sites/default/files/handbook-law-asylum-migration-borders_en.pdf, at 2.2 and 3.1.1.
349
European Agency for Fundamental Rights. and Council of Europe, Handbook on European Law
Relating to Asylum, Borders and Immigration at 3.1.
350
Court of Justice of the European Union, “Bolbol,” para. 29.
348
The 1951 Refugee Convention and Article 1D
65
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