EIT: Ruotsi ei rikkonut perhe-elämän suojaa jättäessään oleskeluluvan myöntämättä

In its committee decision in the case of Abokar v. Sweden (application no. 23270/16) the European Court of Human Rights has unanimously declared the application under Article 8 (right to respect for family life) of the European Convention on Human Rights inadmissible.
The case concerned the Swedish authorities’ refusal to grant the applicant a residence permit for family reunion purposes.
The Court was satisfied that the authorities had struck a fair balance between Mr Abokar’s interests, on the one hand, and those of the State in the effective implementation of immigration policy, on the other.

The applicant, Said Mohamed Abokar, is a Somali national who was born in 1986 and lives in Italy. The case concerns Mr Abokar is married to A, a Somali national who has held a permanent residence permit in Sweden since 2009. He married A in religious and civil ceremonies in May 2011 and April 2013 respectively. They started their relationship in Sweden and have never lived together in
Somalia. They have two children: B, born in 2012 and C, born in 2014. In 2013 the applicant was granted a residence permit and refugee status in Italy. In June 2010 Mr Abokar applied for asylum in Sweden under the identity of Abdirahman Mohamed
Abukar, born on 22 February 1990. In August 2010 the Migration Agency rejected his application and, in accordance with the Dublin Regulation, decided to transfer him to Italy where he had previously applied for asylum and had been granted temporary residence. The Agency noted that the applicant had applied for asylum in Finland in January 2010 as Said Mohamed Abokar, born in 1986, and that he had spent time in Sweden during 2009 without registering.

Relying on Article 8 (right to respect for family life), Mr Abokar complained that Sweden’s failure to grant him a residence permit on the grounds that he could not prove his identity had amounted to a violation of his right to respect for his family life.

Press release