Facts
The Cameroonian national [A.], born in 1968, entered Switzerland in 2005 and unsuccessfully went through an asylum procedure. As she did not comply with her obligation to leave, her place of residence was unknown to the authorities. In 2016, the Migration Office of the Canton of Basel-Stadt applied to the State Secretariat for Migration (SEM) for approval to issue a residence permit due to the existence of a serious personal hardship case. However, the SEM did not enter into the application.
[A.] filed an appeal against the decision of the SEM with the Federal Administrative Court and requested the annulment of the decision and the instruction to the SEM to enter into the cantonal application. However, the Federal Administrative Court rejected her request for legal aid and set a deadline for the payment of a cost advance.
[A.] then filed an appeal in public law matters with the Federal Supreme Court. She requested the annulment of the interim decision and the instruction to the lower instance to grant her legal aid for the proceedings before the Federal Administrative Court.
Considerations
The Federal Supreme Court dismissed the appeal. It stated that [A.]'s appeal appeared to be hopeless, as according to the case law of the Federal Supreme Court, there is no obvious entitlement to the issuance of a residence permit…