The European Court of Human Rights (ECtHR) recently determined that Greece breached several provisions of the European Convention on Human Rights (ECHR) in its handling of a Turkish national, A.R.E., as detailed in a recent ruling. The court concluded that Greece engaged in illegal pushbacks, forcing asylum seekers to return to their country of origin without due process, emphasizing the presence of a systematic practice by Greek authorities.
The case involved an applicant, A.R.E., who alleged that the Greek authorities detained her after she illegally crossed the Evros River into Greece with two other Turkish nationals seeking asylum. She claimed they were denied legal representation and subjected to an expulsion process that ignored their asylum pleas. Following her return to Turkey, she was arrested and imprisoned once more, having been previously detained there for 28 months on charges of association with the Gülen movement, labeled a terrorist organization by Turkey.
Pushbacks, the practice of forcefully returning migrants across borders without allowing them to apply for asylum, contravene the 1951 Refugee Convention and the EU Schengen Borders Code. These conventions uphold the fundamental right to seek international protection, thereby underscoring the significance of this ruling.
The ECtHR specifically found Greece in violation of Article 3, pertaining to the prohibition of inhuman and degrading treatment, and Article 5, regarding the right to liberty and security, of the ECHR. The ruling highlighted how the applicant’s account matched documented patterns of illegal pushbacks as reported by numerous organizations.
Another key aspect of the decision was the violation of Article 13, which guarantees the right to an effective remedy. Greece failed to provide the applicant with legal avenues to contest her detention and expulsion, nor did it inform her of the grounds for her arrest or allow for judicial review of her detention’s legality.
The Greek government argued that there was insufficient evidence directly linking Greek officials to these actions. However, the ECtHR emphasized Greece’s duty to thoroughly investigate allegations of human rights infringements. This underscores the nation’s responsibility to ensure procedural protections against arbitrary detention and expulsion are duly followed.