130 annual report 2013 The Ombudsman noted that the authorities had not found any exceptional reasons for dispensing from the requirement of providing financial security as a condition for reunification of spouses, cf. section 9(4) of the Aliens Act. Therefore, the Ombudsman asked the authorities, among other things, how they had assessed the man’s actual access to exercising his visitation rights in relation to Article 8 of the European Convention on Human Rights on the right to a family life if – as a consequence of the authorities’ refusal to grant family reunification to his wife – he was relegated to living his family life in his wife’s home country and exercising his visitation rights to his children living in Denmark from his wife’s home country. The Immigration Appeals Board resumed the case and referred it back to the Immigration Service for renewed consideration. Consequently, the Ombudsman decided not to continue his investigation of the case. The Immigration Service subsequently informed the Ombudsman that it had granted the man’s wife a residence permit. 2013-25. Refusal of humanitarian residence permit for woman with HIV In 2012, the Ministry for Justice refused to grant a residence permit on humanitarian grounds to a West African woman with HIV. The Ministry did not find that the woman was suffering from a disease of a particularly grave nature which in itself could justify granting a residence permit on humanitarian grounds, as this was not a very advanced HIV infection with a considerably increased risk of developing into AIDS. In accordance with the Ministry’s practice, as laid out in a practice memorandum on the granting of residence permits on humanitarian grounds pursuant to section 9 b(1) of the Aliens Act, neither did the Ministry therefore find cause for obtaining information about the treatment options in the woman’s home country. Furthermore, the Ministry did not find that the information about the state of her health combined with the other information in the case could provide grounds for granting a humanitarian residence permit. In 2013, the Ministry twice refused to resume the case. The woman’s lawyer complained to the Ombudsman and argued, among other things, that when processing the case, the Ministry for Justice had omitted to take significant criteria into consideration, including regard for Article 2 of the European Human Rights Convention on the right to life and the Convention’s