Supreme Court grants asylum to mistreated Algerian wife

The Supreme Court has granted asylum to a woman from Algeria after authorities in her home country failed to offer her adequate protection against the "continued physical and psychological mistreatment" she suffered at the hands of her husband there.

The court issued the landmark ruling after deciding that the Interior Ministry's decision to give her temporary leave to stay in Spain on humanitarian grounds was not sufficient. The High Court had considered proven that the woman, S. A., who has three young children, had been forced to marry by a family agreement and endured abuse "over a long period of time," including after her divorce.

The Supreme Court decision, delivered by magistrate José Manuel Bandrés, confirmed that ruling but pointed out it did not mean that "all mistreated women have right to asylum in Spain."

Victims of gender violence deserved protection "when it was proved that protection given by the national authorities of the origin country showed itself to be useless or illusory, thus perpetuating the situation of suffering," it said.

The Supreme Court has previously recognized the right to asylum of victims of forced marriages or genital mutilation, but this is the first time it has been granted for physical and psychological mistreatment suffered by the plaintiff and her children at the hands of a spouse.