ECtHR decisions in Al-Tayyar Abdelhakim v. Hungary (no. 13058/11) and Hendrin Ali Said and Aras Ali Said v Hungary (no. 13457/11)

Date: 
Friday, October 4, 2013

In two cases this week, the European Court of Human Rights (ECtHR) condemned Hungary for unlawfully detaining at the Debrecen Reception Centre for Refugees asylum seekers, pending the outcome of their asylum claims, without effective judicial review of their detention. Both cases concerned complaints under Article 5§ 1 of the European Convention on Human Rights (ECHR) (right to liberty and security).


The first case of Al-Tayyar Abdelhakim v. Hungary (no. 13058/11) concerned a Palestinian national who, after being stopped at the Hungarian border at Záhony (Hungary) in July 2010 for using a forged passport, he claimed asylum, explaining that he came from a refugee camp in Tripoli, Lebanon, where he faced security problems. The applicants in the second case (Hendrin Ali Said and Aras Ali Said (no. 13457/11) were young Iraqi nationals who left their country in August 2009 and entered Hungary illegally, where they launched their first asylum application before being smuggled to the Netherlands. They claimed asylum, alleging that they had been persecuted in Iraq because of their father’s former service in Saddam Hussein’s army and their Kurdish ethnicity. After their interception in the latter, they were transferred back to Hungary in September 2010 under the Dublin II procedure.


The ECtHR concluded that in both cases the applicants were deprived of their liberty for a substantial period of time essentially because the refugee authority had not initiated their release. Thus, the Court held that the procedure followed by the Hungarian authorities displayed flaws that led to the violation of the applicants’ rights under Article 5 § 1 (f) of the ECHR. The Court further awarded the applicants compensation for non-pecuniary damage and costs.

For the judgments in those two cases please visit: ECtHR: Al-Tayyar Abdelhakim v. Hungary (no. 13058/11)


and ECtHR: Hendrin Ali Said and Aras Ali Said v. Hungary (no. 13457/11)

 


This item was reproduced with the permission of ECRE from the weekly ELENA legal update supported by the Fundamental Rights and Citizenship Funding Programme and distributed by email. The purpose of these updates is to inform asylum lawyers and legal organizations supporting asylum seekers and refugees of recent developments in the field of asylum law. Please note that the information provided is taken from publicly available information on the internet. Every reasonable effort is made to make the content accurate and up to date at the time each item is published but no responsibility for its accuracy and correctness, or for any consequences of relying on it, is assumed by ECRE, the IRC or its partners.

                                                     

 

Keywords: 
Procedural guarantees
Detention
Tags: 
ECtHR
Hungary