What options do you have if your asylum application has been rejected by the Ministry of Interior/Migration Office.
Rejection of asylum application
The Ministry rejects the application for granting asylum (within 60 days from the commencement of the procedure) if:
- you received an asylum in other state;
- you come from a safe third country;
- another state is competent to act in you asylum granting procedure;
- you are a national of a member state of the EU;
- your application concerns a subsequent application for granting asylum, if it was effectively decided in the asylum granting procedure in the past that the application be rejected as manifestly unfounded; you do not justify your application for granting asylum properly.
Denial of asylum application
The Ministry denies granting asylum, if you:
- do not have a well-founded fear of being persecuted in your country of origin for reasons of race, ethnic origin or religion, holding of a particular political opinion or membership of a particular social group or you are not persecuted in your country of origin for exercise of political rights and freedoms;
- you do not meet requirements for granting asylum for the purpose of family reunification;
- if there is a well-founded suspicion that you have committed a crime against peace, war crime, crime against humanity or serious non-political crime;
- you do not have well-founded fear of your persecution in another part of your country of origin;
- you can be reasonably considered a danger to the security of the Slovak Republic.
If the Ministry of Interior/Migration Office refuses to grant you international protection, you have two options – either to appeal the decision or leave Slovakia .
You have the right to challenge both the administrative expulsion and the ban on entry through the Regional Administrative Court.
Administrative expulsion
A negative asylum decision is normally issued together with an administrative expulsion decision issued by the Police Department. In that case you would be obliged to leave the Slovak Republic with an option to determine the time when to depart back to the country of origin, country of transit, or any third country. In their decision on administrative expulsion the police department may place a ban on entry into the Slovak Republic territory or into the territory of all EU member states. In their decision on administrative expulsion the Police Department shall place a ban on entry into the Slovak Republic territory or into the territory of all member states, if the period for leaving the Slovak Republic territory is not specified in the decision on administrative expulsion. The decision is considered final if it has not been appealed or when the Regional Administrative Court has dismissed an appeal against it.
Proceeding on administrative expulsion
Administrative expulsion is a decision of the police department that a foreigner does not have or has lost the entitlement to stay in the Slovak Republic territory and is obliged to leave the territory of Slovakia.
You cannot be administratively expelled to a state in which your life or freedom would be threatened for the reasons of your race, nationality, religion, membership in a particular social group or for your political conviction, or in which you would be threatened by torture, cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment or punishment, or in which you were imposed the death penalty or it may be assumed that you may be imposed such a penalty in the ongoing criminal proceedings. A person without any citizenship may be administratively expelled only if he/she threatens the state security or public order by his/her actions. Neither you can be administratively expelled to any state where there is a threat for you to be forced to return to the state, where you can be persecuted for above mentioned reasons. The expulsion procedure and your rights during the procedure are outlined in the Act on residence of foreigners.
Entry ban
Another decision that can be taken is a ban on entry that can last between 1 to 5 years.
Voluntary return
Voluntary leaving the territory of Slovakia is preferred, but if you have already failed to do so in the past, or if there are other reasons for fearing you would not comply voluntarily, the police may decide to use official force in order to expel you.
If you wish to voluntarily return to your home country, you must coordinate your departure with the Police Department For support and assistance, you have the option of contacting the International Organization for Migration (IOM) office in Slovakia . The IOM’s Voluntary Assisted Return and Reintegration programme offers information and counselling regarding return, help with organising travel and purchasing travel tickets, and also possible reintegration support in your home country.
Appeal
If you do not wish to leave voluntarily, you have the chance to file an action against the decision of the Migration Office to the Regional Court in Bratislava / Regional Court in Košice within 20 or 30 days (it depends on the type of the decision) from delivery of the decision. During the court proceeding you are authorised to stay in the Slovak Republic. If your asylum application is rejected as manifestly unfounded or inadmissible, the authorisation to stay in Slovakia depends on the consent given by the court, which should be given within 15 days from filing of the proposal. If your lawsuit is unjustified, it will be rejected, so the decision of the Migration Office will not be cancelled. If your objections are justified, the decision of the Migration Office will be cancelled and the case will be returned back to the Migration Office for reassessment. In such a case the Migration office is bound by the legal opinion of the court.
If you are not satisfied with the decision of the first instance court (regional court), you can bring a complaint to the Supreme Administrative Court, within 30 days from the delivery of the judgment of the court of first instance. If your complaint is unjustified, the Supreme Regional Administrative court will reject it, so it will confirm the decision of the court of first instance. If your complaint is well-founded, it shall cancel the judgement of the court and return it for reassessment or it can change the judgement of the court and to cancel the decision of the Migration Office. In this case, the Supreme Court shall return the case to the Migration Office for new proceedings.