The Right of Beneficiaries of International Protection to Adequate Living Conditions and Social Benefits

Abstract

In a series of recent cases (Case C-163/17 Jawo and Joined Cases C-297/17, C-318/17 Ibrahim, C-319/17 Sharqawi and Others and C-438/17 Magamadov) the Court of Justice was asked to answer the question of whether the transfer of an applicant for international protection to the Member State that is responsible for processing his application under the Dublin III Regulation [Regulation (EU) No. 604/2013] or that has previously granted him such a protection should be excluded where the adequate living conditions of beneficiaries of international protection cannot be guaranteed in that Member State and/or the subsistence allowance provided to these beneficiaries by that Member State is markedly inferior to that available in other Member States. By judgments of 19 March 2019 in the aforementioned cases, the Court ruled that such an applicant can be transferred to the Member State in question unless the expected living conditions in that Member State of those granted international protection would expose him to a situation of extreme material poverty, contrary to the prohibition of inhuman or degrading treatment. However, the Court stressed that inadequacies in the social system of the Member State concerned do not warrant, in and of themselves, the conclusion that there is a risk of such treatment. Likewise, the Court set out that the mere fact that social protection and/or living conditions provided by a Member State to beneficiaries of international protection are more favourable than those available in the Member State that is normally responsible for a given applicant under the Dublin III Regulation or that has already granted this applicant such a protection cannot be considered as suggesting that the applicant concerned would be exposed, in the event of transfer to the latter Member State, to a real risk of inhuman or degrading treatment.