Abstract
The European Court of Human Rights held, unanimously, that there had been:
a violation of Article 5 § 4 (right to a speedy decision on the lawfulness of detention) of the European Convention on Human Rights, and no violation of Article 3 (prohibition of inhuman or degrading treatment).
The case concerned the applicants’ conditions of detention in the Vial centre on the island of Chios, and the issues of the lawfulness of their detention, the courts’ review of their case, and the information provided to them.
The Court considered that, in view of the circumstances, the applicants had not had access to remedies by which to challenge the decisions ordering their expulsion and the extension of their detention. The applicants were Afghan nationals who understood only Farsi and they had had no lawyers to assist them. The documents issued to them by the authorities had been written in Greek
and had not specified which administrative court had jurisdiction.
As in the case of J.R. and Others v. Greece (no. 22696/16), the Court held that the applicants’ detention had nevertheless been lawful and that the threshold of seriousness for it to be characterised as inhuman or degrading treatment had not been attained.
Country of Decision
Council of Europe
Court Name
CoE: European Court of Human Rights [ECtHR]
Date of Decision
21/03/2019
Keywords
Detention/ Alternatives to Detention
Reception/Accommodation