The applicants, A.B. and A.E., their three minor children and A.K., are six Russian nationals from Chechnya who presented themselves thirty-three times at the border between Poland and Belarus wishing to obtain international protection in Poland. The Polish border guards refused to receive the asylum applications and returned them to Belarus. The applicants were turned back even when the ECtHR adopted an interim measure which asked the Polish government to postpone their expulsion to Belarus. Under Article 3 of the Convention, the applicants allege that they were denied access to an asylum procedure and under Article 4 of Protocol No. 4 to the Convention, that they were subjected to a collective expulsion without an individual analysis of their requests for asylum. Relying on Article 13 in conjunction with Article 3 of the Convention and Article 4 of Protocol No. 4 to the Convention, they also complain that their appeal against the decision to refuse them entry into Poland had no suspensive effect and, under Article 34 of the Convention, that the Polish government failed to comply with the interim measure indicated by the ECtHR.

The court found violations of all the provisions invoked by the applicants.