In her conclusions delivered on Thursday 4 May in the 'K' (C-18/16) case, the Advocate General, Eleanor Sharpston, asserts that European rules do authorise the detention of an asylum seeker in order to establish their identity or when there is a danger of them absconding.
At the end of 2015, an Iranian national arriving at Schiphol airport (the Netherlands) was arrested and taken into custody for the possession of a false passport when he was preparing to travel to the United Kingdom. He was released after two weeks and immediately submitted a request for asylum in the Netherlands, before being detained by the Dutch authorities on the basis of the directive (2013/33/EU) on the reception of applicants for international protection. The Iranian national then took his case to the Dutch courts to oppose his arrest.
Questioned by the Dutch courts as part of the referral for a preliminary ruling, the Advocate General maintained that the rules in the directive on detention are compatible with the EU Charter of Fundamental Rights and the European Convention on Human Rights.
According to Ms Sharpston, detaining an asylum seeker to check their identity or nationality can be an appropriate measure given that this data is essential to determine whether the asylum seeker meets the conditions for obtaining refugee status. Similarly, detention can also be justified by the need to obtain certain elements of information from the asylum seeker if this person is not cooperating with the competent authorities. (Original version in French by Mathieu Bion)