The European Court of Justice fortifies asylum safeguards for stateless Palestinians.
Since 1949, a United Nations relief agency called UNRWA has been helping Palestinian refugees in the Middle East. Under European Union law, these stateless Palestinians do not qualify for asylum if they have already received aid from UNRWA. However, this condition no longer applies if the aid is no longer being provided.
In 2018, a stateless Palestinian woman with a daughter fled to Bulgaria. She argued that UNRWA had stopped providing adequate protection when she arrived. The Bulgarian court then asked the European Court of Justice (ECJ) for guidance.
The ECJ has now decided that stateless Palestinians can claim asylum in the EU under its asylum regulations if their national courts determine that UNRWA can no longer guarantee humane living conditions and a basic level of security. The court pointed out that things have gotten much worse in Gaza since October 7, 2023. The situation is so bad that neither people's living conditions nor UNRWA's ability to carry out its mission are what they used to be.
