Type: Judgment

Authority: European Authorities: European Court of human rights

Date: 12/15/2016

Subject: Judgment of the Grand Chamber on the detention of clandestine migrants: the case concerns the detention in the reception centre in the island of Lampedusa and on some ships moored in Palermo harbor and the expulsion to Tunisia, of irregular migrants who had landed on the Italian coast in 2011 during the events linked to the “Arab Spring”: the Court held that the applicants’ deprivation of freedom had no clear or comprehensible legal basis, therefore it violated the right to security and did not aim to the protection of the individual from arbitrariness; the decree of expulsion issued by the Italian authorities didn’t highlight the legal reasons of the applicants’ detention, nor it had been promptly communicated to them; the Italian legal system didn’t offer the possibility to lodge a claim in order to obtain a decision on the lawfulness of the detention; the Court, however, held that the detention conditions in the reception centre in Lampedusa and on the ships moored in Palermo harbor did not amount to inhuman and degrading treatments; and it was not violated the prohibition of collective expulsions: the applicants had been identified twice and their nationality had been established, so they had a real possibility to oppose the expulsion; moreover, the lack of automatic suspensive effect of the application against the decree of expulsion did not amount to a violation of art. 13 of the Convention, since the applicants didn’t outline any risk of such violation

Parties: Khlaifia e altri c. Italia

Classification: Freedoms - Art. 6 Personal liberty - Personal security - Art. 19 Expulsion - Justice - Art. 47 Right to an effective remedy before a tribunal