The European Court for Human Rights (ECHR) has ordered Germany and Greece to pay damages to a Syrian man who was deported by German police.
The Syrian man was arrested and deported after he tried to enter Germany with a stolen ID card.
In its October 15 decision, the court ruled that German authorities failed to ensure the Syrian man’s asylum application was dealt with appropriately and that he was not subject to ill-treatment.
His internment in Greece after his deportation constituted ill-treatment, the court said.
The ECHR’s verdict has been met with harsh criticism in Germany.
The Syrian applicant – called H.T. in court documents – arrived on Greece’s Megisti island on June 30, 2018.
On July 4, Greek authorities ordered that he be removed to Turkey.
He was transferred to the Greek island of Leros where he requested asylum in Greece.
Under Greek law, he needed to stay on Leros until his application had been dealt with.
However, the man left the island shortly afterwards, claiming the living conditions were substandard.
The Greek Asylum Service subsequently threw out his asylum application in August 2018.
On the morning of September 4, 2018, H.T. attempted to enter Germany from Austria by bus.
When German Federal Police checked his documents, he showed then a Bulgarian ID card issued to a different person.
That ID card had been reported as stolen.
The applicant told police he had bought it in Greece for €2,000.
After the officers searched him, they found his Syrian ID card, along with a certificated of arrival issued by Greek authorities and notes about German organisations who provide help to refugees.
The man said he wanted to request asylum in Germany, but German police put him on a flight back to Athens in the evening hours of September 4.
The German police were following the so-called “Dublin Regulation” that determines which EU member state is responsible for which asylum seekers.
Upon his arrival at Athens airport, H.T. was arrested by Greek police with the aim of deporting him to Turkey as originally planned.
He was transferred back to Leros to be detained at the island’s police station.
In October, the Syrian was diagnosed with “anxiety-depressive disorder” and qualified as a person “belonging to a vulnerable group” by the European Commission’s European Asylum Support Office (EASO).
In April 2020, he was then granted asylum as a refugee in Greece.
Meanwhile, in March 2019, the man lodged an application with the ECHR.
Several refugee-focused non-governmental organisations, among them the British AIRE Centre, the Dutch Council for Refugees, and Refugee Support Aegean, joined the proceedings by submitting comments to the court.
The ECHR ruled both Germany and Greece had violated the European Convention on Human Rights in their dealings with the Syrian man.
Germany had violated Article 3 (“prohibition of torture”) because the deportation led to an extended period of detention in the Leros police station which did not provide necessary amenities for so long a stay.
Germany should have known about these and other shortcomings of the Greek asylum system, said the court.
The judges also criticised Greece for violating Article 3 of the Convention as well as its Article 5 section 4, as it did not allow H.T. to appeal his detention quickly enough.
The ECHR did say that the detention itself had been justified.
The ECHR ordered Germany to pay the man €8,000 in damages, and Greece to pay him €6,500.
Götz Frömming, an MP for the right-wing AfD, said the ruling was a sign Germany should leave the EU and found a new European community which respected the sovereignty of individual states.
Wenn EU-Gerichte derartige Urteile zum Nachteil unseres Landes verhängen, dann muss Deutschland aus dieser EU austreten und einen neuen Europäischen Bund gründen, der die Souveränität der Einzelstaaten respektiert https://t.co/WnYOY35UVd
— Götz Frömming, MdB (@GtzFrmming) October 16, 2024
