Human Rights Court condemns Greece

The case concerned 35 irregular immigrants: 32 Afghan nationals, 2 individuals from Sudan and 1 from Eritrea.

The individuals had succeeded in entering Greece and between 2008 and 2009 smuggled themselves in boats to Italy from Patras. However in the ports of Bari, Ancona and Venice Italian police detected and arrested them. In accordance with the Dublin II treaty, they were then immediately sent back to their country of entry in the EU – i.e. Greece.

Several of the asylum seekers subsequently appealed to the Human Rights Court, alleging that they were in imminent risk of death or torture if they were returned to their home countries. They also alleged that they were subject to ill treatment both by Greek and Italian authorities, detention in poor conditions in Greece and had been given no access to the procedure to request asylum.

The case was made a priority by the court in 2009 which had issued a warning to Greece not to deport any of the individuals until the case was tried. Yet authorities ignored the court, issuing deportation orders for six of the asylum seekers.

For four of the individuals (many of the original 35 did not keep in regular contact with lawyers to see through the court proceedings) the court found that Greece violated Article 13 of the Convention for Human Rights – i.e the right to an effective remedy. The country was also found to have violated Article 3 – the prohibition of torture or inhuman treatment - due to the fact that Greece was ready to deport them to Afghanistan where they faced the serious risk of torture and execution.

Italy was also found guilty of violations due to the fact that it collectively deported the immigrants without even a cursory hearing of their cases and, in the words on the court, “exposed them to the shortcomings” of Greece’s asylum procedure.

Significantly, the court noted that the Dublin II treaty must be implemented in a way in keeping with the European Convention of Human Rights. In other words irregular immigrants should only be deported to their country of entry into the EU after their cases have been assessed and that it has been deemed that the deportation would not put them at risk of human rights violations. The court ruled that indiscriminate and automatic returns by Italian authorities to Greece were unacceptable.

Furthermore if Italian authorities have significant reason to suspect that deporting asylum seekers to Greece will place them at risk of human rights violations, they must not do so.

In the words of the court: “it was for the State carrying out the return to ensure that the destination country offered sufficient guarantees in the application of its asylum policy to prevent the person concerned being removed to his country of origin without an assessment of the risks faced.”