Op-Ed: “Serious illness of a third country national and medical treatment and the options for the Member States: removal or legal stay?” by Aniel Pahladsingh

On 22 November 2022, the Grand Chamber of the Court of Justice ruled in Case C-69/21, Staatssecretaris van Justitie en Veiligheid (Removal – Medicinal cannabis) that a third country national who is suffering from a serious illness may not be removed if, in the absence of appropriate medical treatment in the receiving country, that national risks being exposed to a real risk of a rapid, significant and permanent increase in the pain linked to that illness.

The Court clarified in this judgment the conditions under which the state of health of a third-country national may preclude the enforcement of his removal under Directive 2008/115/EC (Return Directive). In particular, the Court ruled on whether, first, an increase in the pain ex