H.T.T.T, a Vietnamese applicant, arrived in Cyprus on 31 March 2018 with an entry permit as agricultural worker. On 9 May 2018 she applied for international protection and on 2 July 2019 she married a British citizen. Following the marriage, she applied for a resident card as a family member of an EU citizen. Her application for international protection was immediately rejected due to explicit withdrawal based on her latest request. The applicant requested and obtained a divorce sentence in July 2020. By decision of 3 July 2020, the applicant was sentenced to 5 months imprisonment for criminal offences. On 31 July the applicant was released from prison but detained on the same day based on the return and detention order in accordance with Article 14 of the Law on Foreigners and Immigration and because an alternative measure to detention was judged not possible due to risk of escape. On 8 August 2020 the applicant requested the repatriation to her country of origin and arrangements were made with expenses paid by the Department to the embassy fund for her deportation. However, on 10 August 2020, the day of the deportation, the applicant submitted a request for reopening of her application for international protection, request which suspended automatically her removal order. The detention order of 28 July 2020 was annulled, and a new detention order was issued on 11 August 2020 holding that the reopening request was made in order to delay or even prevent her deportation, in addition to the risk of escape.

The applicant contested before the International Protection Administrative Court (IPAC) the detention decision of 11 August 2020 issued by the Department of Population and Immigration Record and requested a decision to be made on her reopened application for international protection. The applicant alleged that the competent authority did not properly investigated her case about the detention requirements and there was no examination of her reasons to remain in Cyprus.

The IPAC noticed that the applicant travelled back to Vietnam in February 2020 without any hindrance, that she asked to be repatriated and consented to the deportation. Moreover, the IPAC held she was divorced and had no family ties in Cyprus, but two minor children in Vietnam and that Vietnam was considered a safe country of origin by Cyprus, no acts of persecution or risk of torture or inhuman or degrading treatment being found in the designated country.

The IPAC rejected the appeal, upheld the detention decision, concluding that the detention was lawful and justified to carry out the return procedures.