Facts
The appellant, a man born in 1962 from Afghanistan, entered Switzerland in October 1990 and applied for asylum. The Federal Office for Refugees rejected his asylum application on 16 November 1993, and the Swiss Asylum Appeals Commission confirmed this decision on 28 October 1994. On 20 July 1995, the aliens' police of the canton of Bern took the appellant into deportation custody, which was approved on 24 July 1995. On 1 September 1995, the appellant was released from deportation custody. At the end of 1996, the appellant left Switzerland and went to Pakistan.
On 9 October 1997, the Federal Office for Refugees submitted a draft of the final settlement of the security account to the appellant's representative. The settlement showed a negative balance of CHF 680.90. The appellant objected to the costs of the deportation custody. The Federal Office for Refugees increased the enforcement costs by CHF 191.-- and ruled that the appellant had to pay a maximum of CHF 9,391.-- for the incurred care and enforcement costs.
The appellant appealed against this ruling to the Federal Department of Justice and Police, which rejected the appeal on 14 June 2000. The appellant filed an administrative court appeal with the Federal Court on 12 July 2000.
Considerations
The Federal Court examined whether the administrative court appeal against the decision of the Federal Department of Justice and Police was admissible. It found that the new Asylum Act of 26 June 1998 now allows administrative court appeals against decisions of the Federal Department of Justice and Police in asylum matters, as long as they are not explicitly declared inadmissible.
The court decided that the applicability of Art. 121 AsylA to procedures concerning the settlement of a security account for cases already completed before its entry into force would constitute a so-called genuine retroactive effect, which is constitutionally questionable. It concluded that the transitional provision is…