Court of Justice of the European Union
27 February 2014
Facts
The Saciri family lodged an asylum application in Belgium and immediately lodged an application for reception with Fedasil. On the same day, Fedasil informed the family that it was unable to provide reception and directed it to the OCMW. The family lodged an application for financial aid with the OCMW, but it was rejected on the ground that the family ought to have stayed in a reception facility managed by Fedasil. The family brought an application for interim measures before the Labour Court. The Court ordered Fedasil and the OCMW to offer the Saciri family reception facilities and to pay the family financial aid. Fedasil placed the family in a reception centre for asylum-seekers. The family sought an order that Fedasil and the OCMW pay a sum corresponding to the equivalent of the minimum guaranteed income in respect of the entire period during which the family had not been housed.
Questions referred to the CJEU by the national court
1. When a Member State chooses to provide the material support in the form of a financial allowance, does the Member State then still have any responsibility to ensure that the asylum seeker enjoys the minimum protection measures contained in the Directive 2003/9/EC?
2. Should the financial allowance be granted from the date of the application for asylum or from another date? Should the financial allowance be sufficient to allow the asylum-seeker to provide for his own accommodation at all times, if necessary in the form of hotel accommodation, until he is offered permanent accommodation?
3. Is it compatible with Directive 2003/9/EC that if a Member State is unable to ensure accommodation, it refers the asylum-seeker for assistance which is available to all the residents of the State?
Court’s ruling
Regarding the first and second question, the Court ruled that financial allowance substituting reception conditions must be provided from the time the application for asylum is made. That Member State must ensure that the total amount of the financial allowances covering the material reception conditions is sufficient to ensure a dignified standard of living and adequate for the health of applicants and capable of ensuring their subsistence, enabling them in particular to find housing, having regard, if necessary, to the interests of persons with specific needs. The material reception conditions laid down in the Directive 2003/9/EC do not apply to the Member States where they have opted to grant those conditions in the form of financial allowances only. Nevertheless, the amount of those allowances must be sufficient to enable minor children to be housed with their parents, so that the family unity of the asylum seekers may be maintained.
The Court also found that Directive 2003/9/EC does not preclude, where the accommodation facilities specifically for asylum-seekers are overloaded, the Member States from referring the asylum-seekers to bodies within the general public assistance system, provided that that system ensures that the minimum standards laid down in that directive are met.