The European Court of Justice ruled on Tuesday (June 11) that female refugees, including minors, may be able to receive asylum if they are able to demonstrate that after a lengthy stay in the bloc, they have "genuinely come to identify" with the European Union's values of gender equality.

Depending on their origin country and how long they have been in the EU, some female refugees to Europe could be regarded as belonging to a "particular social group" that constitutes a reason for persecution, the court stated in a press release outlining the decision.

Two Iraqi teenagers

The court’s decision was based on the case of two Iraqi teenagers who have been living in the Netherlands since 2015.

When their bids for asylum were rejected, the two young women re-submitted their applications, adding that they had "adopted the norms and values of Dutch peers," reported AFP.

The women said that after their time in the Netherlands, it would be difficult to adapt upon a return to Iraq, where they said women do not have the same rights as they do in the Netherlands.

When Dutch authorities rejected the applications for a second time, the women took their case to court in the Netherlands. The Dutch courts referred the case, which requires interpretation of refugee law, to the ECJ.

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Interpreting refugee law

The women’s lengthy stay in the Netherlands granted them the grounds to argue that they had adopted their host country’s gender norms, the ECJ ruled.

The court said this argument can be reflected in asylum claims "especially where it coincides with a period during which an applicant who is a minor has formed his or her identity."

International and European law on asylum and international protection stipulates that anyone applying for protection must demonstrate a well founded fear of being persecuted in their country of origin.

The fear of persecution is typically limited to race, nationality, religious or political convictions; membership in a special social group, such as LGBTQI+ communities, or women who have managed to avoid female genital mutilation in societies valuing FGM.

Also read: ECJ rules against obligatory extension of asylum status

'Grounds for persecution'

The presiding judge, Koen Lenaerts, ruled that adhering to gender equality could put some people into a particular social group, depending on their origin country and the length of their stay in the EU country where they were hosted.

Lenaerts stated that such cases "could constitute grounds for persecution capable of leading to the granting of refugee status."

The decisions of the European Court of Justice are binding on EU member states, although asylum applications are handled at a national level.

The court notes that this "preliminary ruling allows the courts and tribunals of Member States, in disputes which have been brought before them, to refer questions to the Court of Justice about the interpretation of European Union law or the validity of a European Union act."

It adds that the ECJ does not decide the dispute itself and it is now for the "national court or tribunal to dispose of the case in accordance with the Court’s decision, which is similarly binding on other national courts or tribunals before which a similar issue is raised."

With AFP