The European Court of Justice has ruled that every one of Afghanistan’s 20 million women can claim refugee status in the European Union – without having to submit an individual application.
The ruling came when two separate court cases in Austria were combined and referred to a higher-level European Court of Justice. An Austrian administrative court was faced with a case brought by two Afghan women who had previously been denied refugee status but granted subsidiary protection.
The ruling could, hypothetically, increase the EU’s population by 20 million with the stroke of a pen. However, one part of the cumulative “act of persecution” identified by the European Court of Justice is the strict male guardianship rules that restrict unaccompanied women’s movement, especially abroad.
Read also:
Scientists Managed to Create a Complete Three-Dimensional Model of the Brain