CEDH · CASELAW;JUDGMENTS;CHAMBER;ENG — 4 juillet 2023

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text-indent:14.2pt; text-align:justify; page-break-inside:avoid; page-break-after:avoid } .s7CB9076 { margin-top:36pt; margin-bottom:0pt; page-break-inside:avoid; page-break-after:avoid } .sC2E086EB { width:36.89pt; display:inline-block } .s871A718A { width:136.42pt; display:inline-block } .s5A65B3DC { width:46.56pt; display:inline-block } .s44B8752F { width:177.11pt; display:inline-block } .sD00444C6 { margin-top:0pt; margin-bottom:14pt } .s75A32C27 { border-collapse:collapse } .s3695F815 { border:0.75pt solid #949494; padding:1.02pt 5.03pt; vertical-align:top; background-color:#dfdfdf } .s2EF62ED2 { margin-top:0pt; margin-bottom:0pt; font-size:12pt } .sEECE831 { font-family:Arial; font-weight:bold; color:#474747 } .sE8934522 { border:0.75pt solid #949494; padding:1.02pt 5.03pt; vertical-align:top } THIRD SECTION CASE OF B.F. AND OTHERS v. SWITZERLAND (Applications nos. 13258/18 and 3 others)   JUDGMENT   Art 8 • Positive obligations • Family life • Refusal of family reunification requests, for not fulfilling financial independence condition, of provisionally admitted refugees fearing persecution in view of their illegal exit from their countries of origin • Member States having certain margin of appreciation in requiring non-reliance on social assistance before granting family reunification to such refugees • Margin considerably narrower than that for introducing waiting periods for family reunification requested by persons with subsidiary or temporary protection status but not refugee status • International and European consensus on not distinguishing between different 1951 Convention refugees as regards family reunification requirements and on refugees benefiting from more favourable reunification procedure than other aliens reduces margin of appreciation • Particularly vulnerable situation of refugees sur place to be adequately considered when applying requirement to their family reunification request • Insurmountable obstacles to the enjoyment of family life in country of origin progressively assuming greater importance in fair-balance assessment as time passed • Need to apply requirement of non-reliance on social assistance with sufficient flexibility • Refugees not to be required to “do the impossible” to be granted family reunification • Fair balance between competing interests struck in one but not all three applications Art 8 • No breach on account of duration of family reunification proceedings in one application   STRASBOURG   4 July 2023   FINAL   04/10/2023   This judgment has become final under Article 44 § 2 of the Convention. It may be subject to editorial revision. In the case of B.F. and Others v. Switzerland, The European Court of Human Rights (Third Section), sitting as a Chamber composed of:   Pere Pastor Vilanova, President ,   Jolien Schukking,   Georgios A. Serghides,   Darian Pavli,   Peeter Roosma,   Ioannis Ktistakis,   Andreas Zünd, judges , and Milan Blaško, Section Registrar , Having regard to: the applications (nos. 13258/18, 15500/18, 57303/18 and 9078/20) against the Swiss Confederation lodged with the Court under Article 34 of the Convention for the Protection of Human Rights and Fundamental Freedoms (“the Convention”) by four Eritrean nationals and one Chinese national, listed in the appended table (“the applicants”), on the dates indicated in that table; the decision to give notice to the Swiss Government (“the Government”) of the applications; the parties’ observations; the comments submitted by the Governments of Germany and of Norway, as well as by the Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR), who were granted leave to intervene by the President of the Section, and the comments in reply by the Government and by the applicants; the decision not to have the applicants’ names disclosed; Having deliberated in private on 13 June 2023, Delivers the following judgment, which was adopted on that date: INTRODUCTION 1.     The applications concern the refusal of requests for family reunification. The applicants residing in Switzerland were all recognised as refugees within the meaning of the Convention relating to the Status of Refugees (adopted on 28   July 1951, 189 UNTS 137 – “the 1951 Convention”) and granted provisional admission rather than asylum, in line with the relevant Swiss legislation, since the grounds for their having refugee status were deemed to have arisen following their departure from their countries of origin and as a result of their own actions. Under domestic law, they therefore did not have a legal entitlement to family reunification in Switzerland, but family reunification was discretionary and subject to certain cumulative conditions being met. Their applications for family reunification were rejected, firstly, because one of these cumulative criteria, namely non-reliance on social assistance, was not satisfied, and, secondly, because the refusals were deemed not to breach Article 8 of the Convention. All applicants relied on Article 8; some of the applicants also relied on Article 14 of the Convention in conjunction with Article 8. THE FACTS 2.     The applicants’ names, their years of birth, the dates on which they lodged their applications with the Court and the names of their representatives are set out in the appended table. 3.     The Government were represented by their Agent, Mr A. Chablais, of the Federal Office of Justice, and by their Deputy Agent, Mr A. Scheidegger, of that same office. 4.     The facts of the case may be summarised as follows. BACKGROUND TO AND KEY ELEMENTS OF THE APPLICATIONS 5 .     Refugees who are granted asylum are entitled to bring their nuclear family members who hold the same nationality to Switzerland under section   51 of the Asylum Act, without a waiting period or other conditions. Prior to 1 January 2007, provisionally admitted refugees could rely on section   51 of the Asylum Act. Following legislative amendments, family reunification for provisionally admitted persons, including refugees, was made discretionary and subject to certain cumulative requirements, which were firstly set out in section 14c(3 bis ) of the former Aliens Act of 1931 (from 1 January 2007 until that Act was repealed) and which since 1 January 2008 have been set out in section 85(7) of the current Aliens Act, which entered into force on that day. These requirements include a three-year waiting period and non-reliance on social assistance (see paragraphs 45 and   51 below). 6 .     The applicants in applications nos. 13258/18, 57303/18 and 9078/20 are Eritrean nationals, and the applicant in application 15500/18 is of Tibetan origin. After entering Switzerland at different points in time between 2008 and 2012, the first applicant in application no. 13258/18 and the applicants in applications nos. 15500/18, 57303/18 and 9078/20 applied for asylum. In all cases, the (then) Federal Migration Office found that the applicants qualified for refugee status within the meaning of the 1951 Convention on account of the ill-treatment they were at risk of experiencing in their countries of origin in the event of their return. However, as their claims of the persecution which they had allegedly faced in their countries of origin prior to their departure were not deemed to be credible and the risk of ill-treatment upon their return stemmed from their illegal exit from those countries, the grounds for their having refugee status had arisen following their departure from their countries of origin and as a result of their own actions (“subjective post-flight grounds”). Therefore, in accordance with section 54 of the Asylum Act, they were not granted asylum under section 49 of the Asylum Act (see paragraph   44 below), but provisional admission under section 83(3) of the Aliens Act (see paragraph 45 below). All the applicants were heard in person by the Federal Migration Office, but none of them was assisted by a lawyer before that authority. The decisions on the asylum applications also stated that family reunification for provisionally admitted refugees, in relation to spouses and children under the age of 18 years, was governed by and subject to the conditions set out in section 85(7) of the Aliens Act, and that requests had to be filed with the competent cantonal authorities. 7 .     The applicant in application no. 13258/18 lodged an appeal against the decision on her asylum application, with a view to being granted asylum. The Federal Administrative Court declared the appeal inadmissible on the ground that the applicant had not paid court fees in the amount of 600   Swiss francs (CHF) in advance. It did not examine the appeal in substance. The applicants in the other applications did not appeal against the decisions of the Federal Migration Office. 8 .     The applicants subsequently sought to bring members of their nuclear family to Switzerland for the purposes of family reunification. In applications nos. 13258/18, 57303/18 and 9078/20, the family members whose admission to Switzerland was sought were children, all of whom were minors at the time the family reunification proceedings were initiated. In the domestic proceedings it was either established or presumed by the authorities (applications nos. 13258/18 and 9078/20), or submitted by the applicant and not contested by the authorities (application no. 57303/18), that the children’s other parent was missing or dead. In application no. 15500/18, the family members whose admission to Switzerland was sought were the applicant’s long-standing wife and their two minor children. 9.     In the proceedings leading to the present applications, the Federal Administrative Court found that the requirement of non-reliance on social assistance (section 85(7)(c) of the Aliens Act) was not met. The applicants in applications no. 13258/18 and 9078/20 were fully reliant on social assistance. It was established in the domestic proceedings that both of them suffered from health problems and that they were expected to remain reliant on social assistance. The applicant in application no. 13258/18 was found by the competent Swiss authorities to be 100% unfit to work after the conclusion of the domestic proceedings. During the domestic proceedings, the applicant in application no. 9078/20 was deemed to be able to work at least part-time. The applicants in applications nos. 15500/18 and 57303/18 were gainfully employed in Switzerland. However, the domestic authorities established that it was not expected that they could become financially independent in the foreseeable future if their family members joined them in Switzerland. The applicant in application no. 15500/18 worked full-time as a nursing staff member in a care home. The applicant in application no. 57303/18 was working part-time, on a 50% basis, and was caring for her three minor children alone. 10 .     In all cases, the Federal Administrative Court found that the applicants, as refugees whose provisional admission to the country was not likely to be revoked in the near future, had de facto settled status in Switzerland and could rely on Article 8 of the Convention (see paragraph 53 below), but concluded that the refusal of the requests for family reunification did not breach that provision. In all cases, the Federal Administrative Court, in its assessment under Article 8 of the Convention, considered that the applicants’ claims that they had had to leave their countries of origin owing to persecution had been rejected as not credible in the asylum proceedings (see paragraph 6 above). As the facts of the cases, the applicants’ submissions and the court’s reasoning varied to a certain extent, the respective domestic proceedings are summarised individually below. 11.     In applications nos. 13258/18 and 9078/20, the applicants submitted requests for humanitarian visas for their children abroad (see paragraph 48 below). In application no. 13258/18, the request was rejected by the Swiss embassy in Khartoum, as well as, subsequently, the State Secretariat for Migration and the Federal Administrative Court, in a judgment of 17 January 2017. In application no. 9078/20, the applicant’s representative submitted the request in writing to the Swiss embassy in Addis Ababa; no response to the request was given by the embassy, it being noted that, as a rule, requests for humanitarian visas had to be made in person. The proceedings concerning humanitarian visas are not at issue in either of the applications. THE PROCEEDINGS AT ISSUE Application no. 13258/18 12 .     In June 2012 the first applicant, B.F., left Eritrea, where she had been living with her daughter D.E., the second applicant, who was born in 2001. B.F. arrived in Switzerland in July 2012, applied for asylum and was provisionally admitted as a refugee by a decision of the Federal Migration Office of 10 October 2014 (see paragraph 6 above). 13.     On 9 September 2016 B.F. lodged a request for family reunification with the State Secretariat for Migration in respect of her daughter D.E., the second applicant, relying on section 51(1) and (4) of the Asylum Act (see paragraph 44 below). By a letter of 11 October 2016, the State Secretariat for Migration informed her that the legal basis for family reunification with her daughter was provided for in section 85(7) of the Aliens Act, as she was a provisionally admitted refugee. 14 .     On 9 September 2016 B.F. also lodged a request for family reunification in respect of D.E. with the competent authority of the Canton of Fribourg, relying on section 85(7) of the Aliens Act. She submitted that D.E.’s living conditions in Sudan were precarious and that she and D.E. could not wait for the completion of the three-year waiting period. 15.     By a decision of 22 December 2016, the State Secretariat for Migration, having received the opinion of the Canton of Fribourg, rejected the request, finding that the three-year waiting period had not been completed and that the requirement of non-reliance on social assistance was not met. 16 .     On 26 January 2017 B.F., acting in her own name and on behalf of D.E., lodged an appeal against that decision. She argued that section 85(7) of the Aliens Act had to be interpreted in conformity with Article 8 of the Convention and the best interests of the child. In her case, refusing the family reunification which had been requested on the basis of a failure to satisfy the requirements of section 85(7) of the Aliens Act was equivalent to a permanent obstacle to B.F. and D.E. being able to enjoy their family life; this was not justified under Article 8 of the Convention. As B.F. was illiterate, had difficulty learning French and suffered from various health problems, it was likely that she would never be able to meet the requirement of non-reliance on social assistance. Her doctors considered her completely unfit to work; a request for her to be recognised as unfit to work had not yet been filed with the relevant insurance fund, as she had not yet met the requirement of residence in Switzerland for five years in order to potentially have the benefit of that insurance. B.F. further submitted that she had left her daughter with her maternal grandparents when she had left Eritrea. These grandparents had since become unable to care for D.E. and the latter had decided to leave Eritrea for Sudan on her own, where she lived in precarious conditions. It was evident that it was in the best interests of D.E., who had never met her father, a man about whom B.F. had had no news since he had been detained in Eritrea in 2001, to be reunited with her mother in Switzerland. As an unaccompanied girl in Sudan, where her stay was illegal, she was particularly vulnerable and exposed to risks like abduction, sexual abuse, rape and organ trafficking, and would be similarly vulnerable and exposed in the event of her potential onwards journey to Europe, which she had threatened to undertake in an attempt to be reunited with her mother. It was not in her best interests to stay without a parent in Sudan, where she was unable to attend school and from where she risked being expelled. The applicants referred to a report by UNHCR, whose staff in Khartoum had interviewed D.E. in person. Her current living conditions in Khartoum were precarious. Both B.F. and D.E. were severely distressed. The matter was urgent; mother and daughter had been separated since 2012. Lastly, B.F. claimed that she was being discriminated against in comparison with refugees who were granted asylum and were in a more favourable position to bring their nuclear family members to Switzerland, without there being valid reasons for such a difference in treatment. On average, provisionally admitted refugees did not stay in Switzerland for a shorter period than refugees who were granted asylum. She alleged a violation of Article 14 of the Convention read in conjunction with Article 8. In March 2017 B.F. travelled to Sudan for three weeks in an attempt to find a temporary solution for D.E., who was in a state of continued stress and distress, as certified by a neuropsychiatrist in Khartoum. 17 .     By a judgment of 18 September 2017, the Federal Administrative Court rejected the appeal. It rejected the claim that B.F. was being discriminated against as a provisionally admitted refugee compared with refugees who were granted asylum. The latter were able to bring the members of their nuclear family to Switzerland from the moment they were granted asylum. Referring to its earlier case-law, the court considered that section 51 of the Asylum Act was meant to regulate, in a uniform manner, the status of the nuclear family unit as it had existed at the time of fleeing the country of origin, provided that the other family members had the same nationality as the refugee who had been granted asylum. Spouses and minor children were equally to be recognised as refugees and granted asylum (section 51(1)), and their entry into the country for the purposes of family reunification had to be authorised if they had been separated while fleeing and were thus abroad (section 51(4)). Section 51 of the Asylum Act was a special provision that allowed persons who met the relevant requirements to be accorded a more favourable status than those whose residence permit was based on requirements of the Aliens Act. Consequently, section 51 of the Asylum Act, and in particular its subsections 1 and 4, were not to be interpreted in an extensive manner and exclusively applied to the family members of refugees who were granted asylum in Switzerland. It therefore did not apply to any other category of foreign nationals, including provisionally admitted refugees, whose requests for family reunification were made under section   85(7) of the Aliens Act. The legislature had deliberately distinguished between refugees who were granted asylum and refugees who were provisionally admitted to the country. 18 .     In accordance with section 85(7) of the Aliens Act, the minor children of a provisionally admitted refugee could have the benefit of family reunification three years after the order for provisional admission at the earliest, and on the condition that the additional requirements of that provision were met. The three-year waiting period had not been completed when B.F., who had been provisionally admitted by the decision of 10   October 2014, had applied for family reunification on 9 September 2016, or at the time of the Federal Administrative Court’s judgment (18 September 2017). Therefore, it was, strictly speaking, not necessary to examine whether the substantive requirements of section 85(7) of the Aliens Act were met. Given that the completion of the waiting period was imminent, the Federal Administrative Court nevertheless went on to examine whether those substantive requirements were met and concluded that they were not. It noted that B.F. had not disputed that she was fully reliant on social assistance, and thus did not meet the requirements of section 85(7)(c) of the Aliens Act. She had instead relied on Article 8 of the Convention and on the Convention on the Rights of the Child. 19 .     In its assessment under Article 8 of the Convention, the court considered that B.F.’s departure from Eritrea had been voluntary (see paragraphs 6 and 7 above) and that she inevitably had to expect a lengthy separation from D.E., whom she had left behind, and could not count on family reunification being granted without any conditions; the respective conditions (see paragraph 54 below) were not met in the present case. While B.F. had lived in Switzerland for more than five years, she was socially and professionally not well integrated. She had difficulty learning French because she was, according to her own submissions, ill and illiterate. Since having been provisionally admitted to the country she had at no point been able to engage in gainful employment owing to her psychological problems, and was fully assisted by Caritas. In view of her state of health, there was a serious risk that her reliance on social assistance would continue in the long run. D.E. had initially been taken care of by her maternal grandparents in Eritrea. Doubts remained as to whether a genuine state of necessity had forced D.E. to leave Eritrea. Moreover, she had the opportunity to lodge an asylum application with UNHCR and the Commission for Refugees in Sudan. There was a UNHCR programme in Khartoum to assist unaccompanied minors, supporting their placement in foster families. D.E. had furthermore reached an age where she was increasingly independent and did not have the same needs as a younger child. Lastly, B.F. could visit D.E. in Sudan, which she had already done in March 2017. The serious risk of continued and long-term reliance on social assistance, without there being any concrete hope of that reliance decreasing, constituted an important public interest which justified refusing the family reunification requested in the present case. The applicants’ understandable interest in being reunited did not outweigh the above-mentioned public interest and would not do so, at least not until B.F.’s financial situation improved, especially since it was possible for B.F. to be in contact with D.E. and visit her. 20 .     On 23 October 2017 the applicants lodged an appeal with the Federal Supreme Court, which that court declared inadmissible on 27 October 2017, finding that decisions concerning provisional admission were not amenable to appeal to the Federal Supreme Court (section 83(c)(3) of the Federal Supreme Court Act – see paragraph 49 below). 21 .     After the present application was lodged, on 31 January 2019 the competent Swiss authorities recognised B.F.’s unfitness ( invalidité ) for work, confirming that she was 100% unfit to work. Application no. 15500/18 22 .     The applicant, a Chinese national of Tibetan ethnicity who entered Switzerland in November 2010, was provisionally admitted as a refugee by a decision of the (then) Federal Migration Office of 22 December 2010 (see paragraph 6 above). 23 .     On 9 October 2014 the applicant lodged a request for family reunification in respect of his long-standing wife and their two children, born in 2003 and 2007. The applicant submitted that he worked full-time, but that his income was not sufficient to cover the expenses of a family of four. However, he was sure that his wife would be able to work shortly after her arrival and that the family would become financially independent. He submitted the request to the Federal Migration Office, which forwarded it to the competent authority of the Canton of Uri. 24.     By a decision of 18 December 2015, the State Secretariat for Migration, having received the opinion of the Canton of Uri, rejected the request, finding that the requirements under section 85(7) of the Aliens Act were not met, notably the requirement of non-reliance on social assistance. Moreover, the family could, in principle, live together in India, where the applicant’s wife and their children had lived since early 2014. 25 .     On 20 January 2016 the applicant lodged an appeal against that decision. He submitted that the Swiss Red Cross was keeping an apartment available for him to use when his wife and children arrived and would rent it to him for CHF 1,200 a month, and that Mr B. would be a guarantor for the family’s rent. The authorities’ calculation concerning the family’s reliance on social assistance was erroneous: in his submission, the total amount of the family’s monthly expenses would be CHF 4,033.20, not CHF 4,777, and the family’s income would amount to CHF 3,721, not CHF 3,577. The family’s calculated income would thus fall short of the calculated expenses by only CHF 312.20 a month. The family was willing to live modestly and forgo social assistance, if only they were able to finally live together again. The applicant’s wife was willing and able to work part-time as soon as possible. Hence, no reliance on social assistance was to be expected in the future. The standard to be applied to this assessment must not be too strict, given that the particular situation of provisionally admitted refugees had to be taken into account in the decision concerning the authorisation of family reunification, in accordance with section 74(5) of the Regulation on Admission, Residence and Employment (“the Regulation” – see paragraph 47 below). The applicant submitted that he had made great efforts to integrate; he had taken several intensive German language courses, followed professional integration programmes and completed professional training as a nursing staff member. Since mid-2014 he had worked full-time as a nursing staff member in a care home. It was unacceptable to hold the fact that work in the care sector was poorly paid in Switzerland against him and his family, and to deny the family reunification which had been requested on the sole ground that the applicant belonged to the working poor. He had done all that he could and it was discriminatory to deny the family reunification on the basis of his low salary. 26 .     The applicant added that denying the requested family reunification also breached Article 8 of the Convention. In view of the situation in Tibet, his provisional admission to Switzerland was not likely to be revoked. The reasons why he had not been granted asylum had nothing to do with the degree of risk he faced in the country of origin or the likelihood of his return. In terms of settled status, his situation was comparable to those of refugees who were granted asylum. He had not separated from his wife and children voluntarily; he had been forced to flee. They were in contact very regularly and he transferred between CHF 800 and CHF 1,000 to them every month. The family could not, and could not reasonably be expected to, live together in India. Referring to a country report on the situation of Tibetan refugees in India, he submitted that India had not ratified the 1951 Convention or the 1967 Protocol thereto, and Tibetan refugees had no lawful residence in India. The stay of his wife and children there was illegal. Even if the Indian authorities tolerated their stay, their rights were severely restricted, for example as regards access to the labour market, to higher education and the right to own land. Having been recognised as a refugee in Switzerland, the applicant would not receive a residence permit in India. Their family life was only possible in Switzerland. It was in the children’s best interests to live with both parents and to have access to education and to healthcare, which they currently did not have. His wife was ill and dependent on his support. Provisionally admitted refugees were to be accorded more favourable treatment than other foreigners, including other provisionally admitted persons. 27 .     In subsequent submissions, the applicant’s representative repeatedly asked the court to adjudicate the case speedily. On one occasion the competent judge indicated that the adjudication of the applicant’s appeal had been delayed because another judicial formation was preparing a leading judgment in a similar case. 28 .     By a judgment of 2 October 2017, the Federal Administrative Court rejected the appeal. It concurred with the State Secretariat for Migration that the requirements of section 85(7) of the Aliens Act were not met, notably the requirement of non-reliance on social assistance. The applicant’s allegation regarding the authorities’ calculation as to the family’s reliance on social assistance in the event of family reunification was incorrect, as were the applicant’s own calculations. For example, his calculations did not entail any expenses for furniture and certain types of insurance (household, personal liability), and the health insurance for him, his wife and their children provided for an excess that would have to be borne by the family, which was likely to result in expenses, as the applicant suffered from depression and his wife had epilepsy. The amount by which the family would fall short of non-reliance on social assistance was therefore significantly higher than he claimed, even though it could not be calculated precisely in advance. The guarantee submitted by the applicant was void and he could not rely on it for relief. Consequently, the gap between insufficient income and expenses could not be expected to close in the foreseeable future, especially as the epilepsy of the applicant’s wife limited her employment opportunities. Her desire and ability to work, as well as the hope that she would later be employed by the same employer as the applicant, could not be factored into the calculation of the family’s income; a legally valid employment contract would be required to that end. 29 .     In so far as the applicant had submitted that the strict application of section 85(7)(c) of the Aliens Act in his case breached Article 8 of the Convention, the Federal Administrative Court considered that the applicant’s claim that he had had to flee the Tibet Autonomous Region had been rejected in the asylum proceedings (see paragraphs 6 and 10 above). The applicant’s level of integration into professional life was not above average, having regard to the duration of his stay. He had not claimed any deeper social ties to Switzerland and his wife had no links to the country at all, save to the applicant. Moreover, the wife’s submission that she had only been living in India since 1 January 2014 was neither substantiated nor plausible. Fleeing from Tibet over the high mountain passes was very dangerous, even in summer, and a refugee’s subsequent presence in Nepal was risky. Tibetan refugees only found a certain safety once they reached India. A document issued by the Tibet Office in Dharamsala stating that she had been in India since 1 January 2014 was without evidential value. In view of her submission and those of the applicant in the asylum proceedings – that he had never been to school and spoke not a word of Chinese, which indicated that he did not originate from the Tibet Autonomous Region – the Federal Administrative Court concluded that it was likely that the family, including the applicant, had stayed in India for a significantly longer period than they claimed. In any event, and regardless of whether he had stayed in India before, the applicant could live his family life in India. Tibetans were not threatened with removal from India, and there was effective protection against such removal. This was illustrated by the stay of his wife and children there. Considering that the family reunification which had been requested was expected to result in further costs to be borne by the authorities and to lead to a risk of significant reliance on social assistance, the important public interest in refusing the family reunification outweighed the private interests. Application no. 57303/18 30 .     According to her submissions, the applicant left Eritrea in 2006, then stayed in Sudan until she left in May 2007 for Libya, where she stayed until November 2008, when she crossed the Mediterranean Sea. She subsequently entered Switzerland, together with her then partner and their two children, born in 2006 and 2007. A third child was born to the couple in 2009. The applicant was provisionally admitted as a refugee by a decision of the (then) Federal Migration Office of 10 February 2010 (see paragraph 6 above). The father of the three above-mentioned children returned to Eritrea in 2013; the applicant submitted that he had later disappeared entirely. 31 .     In March 2010 the applicant lodged a request for family reunification in respect of her eldest daughter X, who was born in November 2000 from a previous relationship. The applicant initially lodged the request with the Federal Migration Office, which forwarded it to the competent authority of the Canton of Vaud. By a decision of 17 March 2011, the Federal Migration Office, having received the opinion of the Canton of Vaud, refused the request. By a judgment of 18 December 2012, the Federal Administrative Court rejected an appeal against that decision. 32 .     On 3 December 2014 the applicant lodged a fresh request for family reunification in respect of X with the Federal Migration Office. By a letter of 18   December 2015, the State Secretariat for Migration, referring to the previous family reunification proceedings, noted that the request had to be lodged with the competent cantonal authorities, which was why the applicant had not received a response thus far. It informed the applicant that it had forwarded the request to the competent authority of the Canton of Vaud. On 8 September 2016 the applicant’s legal representative lodged a family reunification request in respect of X with the competent authority of the Canton of Vaud. In their observations, the Government referred to that action by the applicant’s representative as a reiteration of the request for family reunification, and referred to the proceedings initiated by the request of 3   December 2014 as the second set of family reunification proceedings. On multiple occasions the Canton of Vaud requested additional documents from the applicant, such as the birth certificate of X; the applicant submitted the last document requested on 7 May 2017. The Canton of Vaud sent its opinion on the family reunification request in July 2017, and by a decision of 5   December 2017 the State Secretariat for Migration rejected the request. It considered that the time-limit under section 74(3) of the Regulation (see paragraph 47 below) for filing a family reunification request concerning a child over the age of 12 had not been respected, and that the applicant did not satisfy the requirement of financial independence. The authority concluded that the refusal did not breach Article 8 of the Convention. 33 .     On 3 January 2018 the applicant lodged an appeal against that decision, acting in her own name and on behalf of her daughter. The applicant alleged that the refusal to grant the family reunification which had been requested breached Article 8 of the Convention and was contrary to X’s best interests. X had been eight years old at the time the applicant had lodged her first request for family reunification in 2010 (see paragraph 31 above); she was 16 years old now. It was impossible for the applicant, who was raising three young children alone, to satisfy the requirement of financial independence under section 85(7)(c) of the Aliens Act, even though she was working. The applicant maintained that she had had to leave X behind in Eritrea at the time because fleeing the country would have been too dangerous for a small child. X was dependent on the applicant, who was her sole living parent, as her father had died. X lived in precarious conditions as a displaced person in Khartoum; she had not been schooled, was in poor health, and as a young girl without family support, she was exposed to various risks of abuse. Both mother and daughter were suffering enormously from being separated and it was not possible for them to live together somewhere other than Switzerland. As it was unlikely that the applicant would find a job that was sufficiently well paid to achieve non-reliance on social assistance, refusing the family reunification which had been requested on the ground of a lack of non-reliance on social assistance entailed a de facto permanent separation of mother and daughter. 34 .     By a judgment of 26 July 2018, the Federal Administrative Court rejected the appeal. Noting that X had been born in November 2000, it concurred with the State Secretariat for Migration that the time-limit of section 74(3) of the Regulation had not been respected: it had expired on 10   February 2014, one year after the three-year waiting period under section   85(7) of the Aliens Act had been completed on 10 February 2013. The family reunification which had been requested could therefore, in accordance with section 74(4) of the Regulation, only be granted for good cause. However, the question of whether that condition was met could be left open, as in any event the requirement of non-reliance on social assistance (section   85(7)(c) of the Aliens Act) was not satisfied. The applicant, who had had the benefit of social assistance ever since she had arrived in Switzerland, had certainly taken steps likely to facilitate her professional integration. Notably, she had been taking French language courses since 2011 and had completed a six-month period of professional training in the cleaning sector in 2016; since January 2016 she had been doing two hours of housekeeping work per week, and since September 2017 she had been working part-time (on a 50% basis) in a hospital. Between September and December 2017, her monthly net income had amounted to CHF 1,714, CHF   1,759, CHF 1,770 and CHF 2,823 respectively, which had contributed to reducing the amount of social assistance allocated to the family. In December 2017 the monthly social assistance she had received had amounted to CHF 1,196.55, in addition to the rent for her apartment (CHF 1,810) being covered by social services. Notwithstanding her part-time employment, the applicant remained largely reliant on social assistance, and she had not shown that it was likely that she would be able to achieve financial independence in the near future. 35 .     In its assessment under Article 8 of the Convention, the Federal Administrative Court took into account the fact that the applicant’s claim that she had had to leave Eritrea owing to problems with the authorities had been rejected as not credible in the asylum proceedings (see paragraph 6 above). Her decision to leave Eritrea inevitably meant that she had to expect a lengthy separation from X, whom she had left with her own mother, and could not count on family reunification being granted without any conditions; the respective conditions (see paragraph 54 below) were not met in the present case. The applicant had not found part-time employment until September 2017, which paid her a monthly salary of CHF 2,000 gross. She remained largely reliant on social assistance and did not appear to be in a position to become financially independent in the near future, especially when taking into account that she no longer had the help of her partner, who had returned to Eritrea, and that she had to care for three minor children in Switzerland. It appeared from the file that X had left Eritrea with her grandmother and had lived with her in Khartoum until shortly before the Federal Administrative Court’s judgment. Having regard to the applicant’s submission that her daughter now lived there alone and that her living conditions as an unaccompanied girl were precarious, the Federal Administrative Court emphasised that she could lodge an asylum application with UNHCR and the Commission for Refugees in Sudan. There was a UNHCR programme in Khartoum to assist unaccompanied minors, supporting their placement in foster families. X had furthermore reached an age where she was increasingly independent and did not have the same needs as a younger child had. Lastly, the applicant could visit X in Sudan, which she had already done for a month in 2014. The serious risk of continued and long-term reliance on social assistance, without there being any concrete hope of that reliance decreasing, constituted an important public interest which justified refusing the family reunification which had been requested in the present case, especially as X’s current situation had resulted from a personal choice and there were no indications that she was in an extremely critical situation. The interests of the applicant and her daughter in being reunited were certainly understandable, but did not outweigh the public interest and would not do so, at least not until the applicant’s financial situation improved, especially since contact with her daughter in Sudan was possible. Application no. 9078/20 36 .     The applicant left Eritrea in January 2012 and applied for asylum in Switzerland in March 2012. She was provisionally admitted as a refugee by a decision of the (then) Federal Migration Office of 3 February 2014 (see paragraph 6 above). 37 .     On 10 July 2014 the applicant lo