The Jawo case: The limits of the principle of mutual trust
By Anthea Galea
On 19 March 2019, in Jawo vs. Germany, the Court of (ECJ) the question of whether the Charter of Fundamental Rights of the European Union (the Charter) prohibits the transfer of an asylum applicant to the Member State responsible for processing the asylum application if there is a serious risk that the applicant will be subjected to inhuman or degrading treatment. The ECJ established that when deficiencies in the asylum system of a Member State put a person who has been granted international protection in a situation of extreme material poverty, in which his or her most basic needs are not met, the threshold of a high level of severity is reached. As a result, the asylum seeker may not be transferred. In contrast to previous judgments, namely N.S. and Others and C.K. and Others, the ECJ considered the applicant’s circumstances after having been transferred to the responsible Member State and granted international protection. In addition, this judgment provides another instance in which the principle of mutual trust – which is the cornerstone of the Common European Asylum System (CEAS) – can be rebutted, leading to an asylum applicant not being transferred.