CDG (A Child) (Article 13(b): Refugee Status and Safe Third Country), Re

Facts

The mother, the father and their son CDG are Eritrean nationals. The mother left Eritrea as a small child and, after years in Sudan, reached Germany in around 2017. Her asylum claim there was refused, but she was granted humanitarian protection on two-year residence permits, the last of which ran until August 2026 and has now expired. CDG was born in Germany in 2021. In the spring of 2024 a German family court ordered weekly unsupervised time between CDG and the father, and that order remains in force. The mother alleges serious physical, sexual and emotional abuse by the father. In August 2025 she agreed with him to take CDG on holiday. Instead, in September 2025 she crossed from France by small boat with CDG and his elder half-sibling CDH, and claimed asylum. On 6 November 2025 the Secretary of State recognised her as a refugee, and the children were granted refugee status "in line" as her dependants, without any separate determination. The father applied for a return order under the Hague Convention on the Civil Aspects of International Child Abduction 1980. Wrongful removal was common ground. The mother, largely supported by the children's guardian, relied on Article 13(b) of the 1980 Convention, arguing chiefly that return carried a risk of onward refoulement from Germany to Eritrea. The parties could not find a Part 25 expert, so the court proceeded on the material before it.