Council of State continues to investigate deportation of third-country nationals

A third-country national who has fled Ukraine and filed a complaint with the Council of State against his deportation may not yet be deported. The judge decided this on Friday for interim legal protection of the Administrative Law Department of the Council of State. The Council of State needs more time to assess whether the deportation decision of outgoing State Secretary Eric van der Burg (Asylum) was lawful.

It is a so-called 'order measure' taken by the provisional court. Without dealing with the matter, the judge ruled that this third-country national may not be deported until further notice. The judge pauses for a moment, so to speak, to allow further investigations.

The reason for this is the contradictory decisions of various courts in cases where several third-country nationals have taken legal action against their impending deportation. "They come to different conclusions based on different legal arguments," the Council of State's judge for interim relief wrote in its ruling. In addition, the Amsterdam court turned to the European Court of Justice on Friday to rule on the rights of third-country nationals.

Third-country nationals are people who were living in Ukraine with a temporary residence permit when Russia invaded the country and then fled to the Netherlands.

Several courts have ruled that third-country nationals are entitled to the same protection as Ukrainians living in the Netherlands and are not allowed to be deported. Other courts, however, agree with an earlier decision by the Council of State, which stated that third-country nationals are no longer entitled to stay in the Netherlands from March 4. They must leave the Netherlands by April 2 at the latest. This is also the line taken by the State Secretary.

The third-country national against whom the judge for interim relief of the Administrative Law Division of the Council of State has now taken the administrative measure appealed against the court's judgment in Utrecht. The court ruled that the third-country national no longer had the right of residence and could be deported.

As further investigations are required "and given the interests put forward by the foreign national and the Secretary of State," the judge for interim relief ruled that the return decision may not be implemented for the time being. The decision only applies to this third-country national.