The case concerned the applicant’s detention in the hotspot in the Early Reception and Aid Centre (Centro di Soccorso e Prima Accoglienza – CSPA) on the island of Lampedusa and the poor living conditions therein. The applicant arrived by vessel on 15 January 2018 and applied for asylum at the hotspot on 30 January 2018. Following an interview held on 1st February 2018, the application was rejected as manifestly unfounded. An appeal was lodged but the outcome is unknown. On 27 February and 1 March the applicant requested to be transferred to other facility on grounds of poor conditions in the Lampedusa hotspot and the center was further closed due to a fire that broke on 8 March 2018, leaving the applicant in the impossibility of getting out of the Lampedusa hotspot. On 20 March 2018 he was transferred to a reception facility in Turin but soon he was transferred back to the Lampedusa hotspot where he remained for other two months.

The applicant relied on Article 3, Article 5 §§ 1, 2 and 4 and Article 13 of the Convention and on Article 2 of Protocol No. 4 to the Convention to complain in poor conditions and deprived of his liberty during his stay in the Lampedusa hotspot.

The court found a violation of Article 3 of the Convention due to the conditions in the Lampedusa hotspot, which were also highlighted in reports of the National Guarantor of the Rights in Italy. On article 5 of the Convention, the court concluded to a violation because the applicant was placed in the Lampedusa hotspot by the Italian authorities and remained there for more than two months without a clear and accessible legal basis and in the absence of a reasoned measure ordering his detention. The court found that the applicant was arbitrarily deprived of his liberty and that he was not informed of the legal reasons for his deprivation of liberty or provided with sufficient information to enable him to challenge the grounds for his de facto detention before a court.