Criminal case on illegal entry remitted and stayed pending asylum decision

Case no. 13/2025

Judgment delivered on 10 September 2025

The Public Prosecutor
vs.
T

In 2023, T had been sentenced to imprisonment for four months and expulsion from Denmark with a six-year entry ban for assault and threatening a witness. When he was released on probation, he left Denmark. A few months later, he re-entered Denmark and applied for asylum.

In the case at hand, T was charged with violation of the Danish Aliens Act for having entered Denmark in contravention of his entry ban. Pursuant to article 31(1) of the Refugee Convention, a convention refugee is not punishable for illegal entry into Denmark if a number of conditions are met, including that the refugee shows good cause for their illegal entry.

The Supreme Court stated that article 31(1) also covers entry in contravention of an entry ban. The fact that T had entered Denmark in contravention of an entry ban and could possibly have travelled to another country than Denmark to apply for asylum there could not lead to him not showing good cause for entry into Denmark if he fulfilled the other conditions in article 31(1), including that he was a convention refugee.

The question of whether T was a convention refugee was to be decided by the immigration authorities. Since they had not made their final decision, the Supreme Court remitted the case for reconsideration by the District Court and thereby stayed the criminal case pending the immigration authorities’ final decision.

The High Court had reached a different conclusion.