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1. Member States may allocate applicants to a geographical area within their territory in which they are able to move freely, for the duration of the procedure for international protection in accordance with Regulation (EU) 2024/1348.

2. Member States may allocate applicants to a geographical area within their territory pursuant to paragraph 1 only for the purpose of ensuring the swift, efficient and effective processing of their applications in accordance with Regulation (EU) 2024/1348 or the geographic distribution of those applicants, taking into account the capacities of the geographical areas concerned. Member States shall inform applicants in accordance with Article 5 of their allocation to a geographical area, including of the geographical boundaries of that area.

3. Member States shall ensure that applicants have effective access to their rights under this Directive and to the procedural guarantees in the procedure for international protection within the geographical area to which those applicants are allocated. That geographical area shall be sufficiently large, allow access to necessary public infrastructure and shall not affect the applicants’ unalienable sphere of private life.

4. Member States shall not be required to take administrative decisions for the purpose of paragraph 1.

5. Member States shall, upon the request of the applicant, grant that applicant permission to temporarily leave the geographical area for duly justified urgent and serious family reasons, or necessary medical treatment which is not available within the geographical area. Where an applicant leaves the geographical area without permission, a Member State shall not apply penalties other than those provided for under this Directive. The applicant shall not be required to request permission to attend appointments with authorities and courts if the attendance of that applicant is necessary. The applicant shall notify the competent authorities in advance of such appointments.

6. Where it has been established, including as a consequence of an applicant’s request for appeal or review in accordance with Article 29, that an applicant has not been granted effective access to his or her rights under this Directive or to the procedural guarantees in the procedure for international protection within the geographical area, the allocation of that applicant to that geographical area shall no longer apply.

7. Before applying this Article, the Member State concerned shall lay down the conditions for the application of this Article in national law and inform the Commission and the Asylum Agency in accordance with Chapter 5 of Regulation (EU) 2021/2303.