On the 23rd of February 2012 the Grand Chamber of the European Court of Human Rights delivered its judgment in the case of Hirsi Jamaa and Others v. Italy (application no. 27765/09). The case concerned Somalian and Eritrean migrants travelling from Libya who had been intercepted on the high seas by Italian authorities and sent back to Libya, in accordance with Italian “pushback policy”.
According to the Court, the events giving rise to the alleged violations had fallen within Italy’s jurisdiction within the meaning of Article 1 of the Convention.
The Court also concluded that, by transferring the applicants to Libya, Italian authorities had exposed them to the risk of ill-treatment prohibited by the Convention, therefore violating Article 3.
Moreover, it concluded that the removal of the applicants, carried out without any examination of each individual situation, amounted to a collective expulsion in violation of Article 4 of Protocol No. 4.
Furthermore, the applicants had been unable to lodge complaints under relevant provisions of the Convention with a competent authority, to obtain a thorough and rigorous assessment of their requests, before the removal measure was enforced, which amounted to a violation of Article 13 taken in conjunction with Article 3 and Article 4 of Protocol No. 4.
Finally, under Article 41 (just satisfaction), the Court held that Italy was to pay each applicant 15,000 euros (EUR) in respect of non-pecuniary damage and EUR 1,575.74 to the applicants jointly in respect of costs and expenses.
Read the full judgment
Read the comment by Prof. Bruno Nascimbene on Affari Internazionali (Condanna senza appello per i ‘respingimenti’)
