Facts
Rwandan national born in 1966, X. left her country of origin on March 21, 1997 accompanied by her three children born in 1988, 1989 and 1992 respectively. Entering Switzerland on April 11, 1997, she immediately filed an asylum application for herself and her children. By decision of November 4, 1997, the Federal Office for Refugees rejected this application and ordered the deportation of the applicants from Swiss territory, while at the same time pronouncing their provisional admission, considering that the immediate execution of such a deportation was not reasonably required.
Following a request by X. to have her provisional admission transformed into an ordinary residence permit, the Geneva cantonal immigration authorities forwarded her file to the Federal Office for Foreign Nationals, proposing to grant the person concerned, as well as her children, the benefit of Art. 13(f) of the Ordinance of October 6, 1986 limiting the number of foreigners (OLE). By decision of June 15, 2000, the Federal Office for Foreign Nationals refused to exempt X. and her children from the maximum number of foreigners. Ruling on appeal on September 5, 2001, the Federal Department of Justice and Police confirmed this decision.
Acting by way of an administrative law appeal, X. and her three children request the Federal Tribunal to annul the decision rendered on September 5, 2001 by the Department and to grant them an exemption from the limitation measures based on Art. 13(f) OLE.
Considerations
The Federal Tribunal upheld the appeal. It considered that, although the appellants had been provisionally admitted for one of the classic reasons leading to the pronouncement of a replacement measure, and not due to a case of serious personal hardship provided for in Art. 44(4) of the Asylum Act (LAsi), the immigration authorities were competent to examine their request for exemption from the limitation measures under Art. 13(f) OLE, the principle of the exclusivity of the procedure having ceased to have effect.
On the…