The case concerns the refusal of Polish border guards to receive asylum applications from a family of Russian nationals from Chechnya who presented themselves sixteen times at the border between Poland and Belarus, and their summary removal to Belarus, with a risk of refoulement to and ill-treatment in Chechnya. Relying on Articles 3 of the Convention and 4 of Protocol No. 4 to the Convention, the applicants complain of having been exposed to a risk of being subjected to torture or inhuman or degrading treatment in their country of origin, of having been subjected to degrading treatment by the Polish authorities and of having been the object of a collective expulsion. Under Article 13, they alleged that they had not benefited from an effective remedy which would have enabled them to present their complaints.

The court found that the return of the applicants to Belarus amounted to a violation of Article 3 of the Convention and a violation of Article 4 of Protocol No. 4 to the Convention. Furthermore, the court found a violation of Article 13 of the Convention taken in conjunction with Article 3 of the Convention and Article 4 of Protocol No. 4 to the Convention as it considered that an appeal against a refusal of entry and a further appeal to the administrative courts were not effective remedies within the meaning of the Convention because they did not have automatic suspensive effect.