E-1317/2020
Switzerland /
Russia /
Federal Administrative Court of Switzerland
The clients in the case are A. and her five minor children. All of them are Russian nationals of Chechen origin. The case concerns the rejection of the asylum application and the deportation of the clients from Switzerland to Russia.
Circumstances of the case
In Chechnya A.’s and her ex-husband’s relatives intended to separate A. from her children so that the latter would be brought up in their father’s family. In such an event A. would have been deprived of contact with her children. A.’s relatives, her ex-husband, and his relatives justified the need for separation by Chechen traditions, according to which in the event of the parents’ divorce or the father’s death children should be brought up in the father’s family.
Because A. had refused to observe the tradition, she was persecuted by her husband’s relatives and her own brothers.
In Switzerland the State Secretariat for Migration rejected the clients' application for asylum. The appointed legal representative of the clients refused to appeal against the decision to the Federal Administrative Court, because she deemed the appeal would have had no chance of success. Therefore, the decision of the State Secretariat for Migration’s remained unchallenged and came into legal force.
A few months later the clients turned to us.
Reexamination of the initial refusal of asylum
We prepared an application for the reexamination of the initial decision to the State Secretariat for Migration, and after the application was denied – a complaint to the Federal Administrative Court. Both the State Secretariat for Migration and the Court have suspended the deportation of the clients pending the examination of their application and appeal.
In both the application to the State Secretariat for Migration and the appeal to the court we provided information about the separation of mothers from children in Chechnya and the persecution of women who refuse to abide by the Chechen traditions.
