M.A., a Ghanaian national, an unaccompanied minor, reached Italy in Reggio Calabria on 2 October 2016 and she fled to Como where she was accommodated in the Osvaldo Cappelletti adult reception centre. Her application for asylum was registered on 29 June 2017, in which she alleged that she fled Ghana due to forced marriage and sexual abuse.

Before the ECtHR, she complained under Article 3 of the Convention that she was the victim of sexual abuse in the Osvaldo Cappelletti reception centre for adults in Como, for almost eight months due to the lack of separation between minors and adults and the lack of safeguards provided to minors.

The court observed that the applicant had disclosed being a victim of sexual abuse to the Italian authorities after her arrival in the Osvaldo Cappelletti and reiterated these claims to the psychologist and mediator and that the applicant’s representative made five requests to the Prefecture, the police headquarters, the Red Cross and the guardian asking that the applicant be transferred to a suitable centre. The court observed that these requests were not answered until the end of September 2017, when the court applied an interim measure pursuant to Rule 39 of the Rules of Court, indicating to the Italian Government to transfer her to a facility suitable for an unaccompanied minor.

The court also noted that both guardians appointed for the applicant were unresponsive to the applicant’s situation and needs.

Thus, the court found that the applicant’s stay in the Osvaldo Cappelletti Centre, without appropriate psychological assistance, and the authorities’ inaction regarding her situation and needs as a particularly vulnerable minor, breached Article 3 of the Convention and amounted to inhuman treatment.