Women from outside the European Union at risk of “honour” crimes, forced marriages or domestic violence in their home country could be granted refugee status, a senior adviser to the European Court of Justice (ECJ) said this week. Thursday.
An ECJ attorney general made the remarks in a case brought by a court in Bulgaria, uncertain whether to grant refugee status to a divorced Kurdish woman who said she was at risk of violence if returned to her home country of Turkey. .
The woman was forcibly married and, after several episodes of domestic violence and threats from her husband and other family members, ran away from home and ended up in EU member Bulgaria, the ECJ said in a statement.
International refugee protection can be granted to people who are exposed to risks of violence because they belong to a “specific social group” and women, because of their gender, can be considered as such a group under EU law, the lawyer said. -general in the case, Richard de la Tour.
Bulgarian authorities therefore need to carefully assess whether there is a direct link between the risks women face in Turkey and their gender, added the Advocate General.
These opinions are not binding, but the ECJ generally follows them when delivering the final verdict several weeks later.
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