New hope for civil war refugees – In a ruling today, the European Court of Justice (ECJ) decided that the question of whether a “serious individual threat” exists for the granting of subsidiary protection status in accordance with Section 4 Asylum Act or Art. 15 letter c of the Qualification Directive 2011/95/EU may not be made dependent solely on the ratio of the number of victims to the total population. In doing so, the European Court of Justice has rejected the established case law of the Federal Administrative Court (see for example U. v. 17.11.2011 – 10 C 13.10 -), according to which the granting of subsidiary protection status in civil war countries such as Afghanistan should always depend on the so-called “body count”. According to the ECJ, the number of victims is only one of numerous other criteria that must be examined comprehensively, taking into account the individual case. These include all facts that characterize the conflict, such as the conditions in the home province as well as the impact of the conflict on civilians, the duration and intensity of the conflict and the degree of organization of the parties involved. In suitable cases, a subsequent application for subsidiary protection status can now be submitted (see the ECJ ruling of 14.05.2020, Ref. C-924/19 PPU and C-925/19 PPU).