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6.2. Relevant circumstances

COMMON ANALYSIS
Last update: February 2019
*Minor updates added October 2021

The Qualification Directive does not set a time limit for the application of the grounds for exclusion. Applicants may be excluded in relation to events which have occurred in the recent and more distant past. Relevant situations from the past could include, for example:

• 
armed conflict (civil war) in Biafra in 1967-1970
• 
coups d’état and military regimes in 1966-1979 and 1983-1998                                              
• 
etc.

In the context of Nigeria, the need to examine possible exclusion issues may arise, in particular, in cases of applicants who may have been involved in the following:

• 
armed conflict involving Boko Haram and the Nigerian security forces
• 
crimes committed during violent clashes between herders and farmers and/or between communal militias
• 
crimes committed by student cults, criminal gangs and/or bandits
• 
crimes committed by trafficking networks
• 
etc.

In relation to potential exclusion considerations, see also the chapters Actors of persecution or serious harm and Analysis of particular profiles with regard to qualification for refugee status.

  
The examples mentioned in this chapter are non-exhaustive and non-conclusive. Each case should be examined on its own merits.