Brussels, 01/09/2015 (Agence Europe) - On Tuesday 1 September, the European Court of Human Rights (ECHR) ruled against Italy for the unlawful detention of Tunisian migrants on the island of Lampedusa in degrading conditions, followed by subsequent detention on ships moored in Palermo harbour. These illegal Tunisian migrants arrived on Italian shores in 2011 pending their illegal and collective expulsion from the country (Khlaifia Case).
The European judges therefore criticised Italy for breaching several articles in the European Convention of Human Rights when they detained these migrants. There was no legal basis for this detention (violation of art.5§1 of the Convention) because the migrants were not informed of the reasons for their detention or expulsion (art.5§2) and were not offered any possibility of contesting the legality of the action taken against them (art5§4).
Although the exceptional humanitarian crisis confronting Italy at the time was taken into account, due to the mass migration of Tunisians following the Arab Spring, the ECHR ruled that these migrants had been detained in degrading conditions (overcrowding, unhygienic and insanitary conditions, with no contact with the outside world). Their human dignity had been infringed whilst in the Contrada Imbriacola reception centre on the island of Lampedusa in violation of art 3 of the Convention and they were subject to collective expulsion prohibited by art.4 of protocol No.4 of the Convention. Although the interested parties had been subject to an identification procedure by the Tunisian consular authorities and had received individual refoulement order, no individual interviews had taken place and these expulsion orders had been drafted in identical terms, without any reference to the personal situation regarding each individual migrant.
The migrants were expelled without having the opportunity to introduce an appeal that could be considered “effective” insofar as it would have had immediate suspensive effect (violation of art.1 Convention combined with articles 3 and 4 of the Protocol No. 4).
This ruling has been made at an important time given that several European countries confronted by an unprecedented influx of immigrants from war zones (Syria, Iraq and Libya etc.) are obliged to set up temporary reception installations for these migrants and are sometimes tempted to resort to accelerated procedures to repatriate those that should not have the right to claim asylum. In several different points, this ruling corroborates the jurisprudence of the European Court of Justice, which in several different cases, highlighted the importance of reception procedures that needed to respect the rights of immigrants to individual examination of their cases and fair treatment, as well as respect for the rights in the event of expulsion (see EUROPE 10367, 10856 and 10918). (Francesco Gariazzo)