Court
European Court of Human Rights
Decided
June 30, 2022
Docket
Application no. 39028/17; ECLI:CE:ECHR:2022:0630JUD003902817
Judge
Chamber of the First Section: Marko Bošnjak, President; Péter Paczolay; Krzysztof Wojtyczek; Alena Poláčková; Raffaele Sabato; Lorraine Schembri Orland; Ioannis Ktistakis.
Outcome
Relief granted
Disposition
Unanimously: the application admissible; violations of Article 3, of Article 4 of Protocol No. 4, and of Article 13 taken with Article 3 and Article 4 of Protocol No. 4. EUR 28,000 to the applicants jointly for pecuniary and non-pecuniary damage and EUR 750 for costs and expenses; the remainder of the claim dismissed. The judgment became final on 14 November 2022.
Nationality
Seven Russian nationals from Chechnya: a married couple, the husband’s mother and the couple’s four children (paragraph 2). The first applicant said that “on at least two occasions in 2016 he had been detained by officers of the special services, tortured and questioned” (paragraph 7).
Third country
Belarus. Border guards at Terespol turned the family away to Belarus sixteen times between October 2016 and June 2017 (paragraphs 6, 11, 13, 15 and 45). On 25 May 2017 the Belarusian authorities told them that “they had to leave Belarus by 4 June 2017, otherwise they would face deportation” (paragraph 12).
The family went to the crossing at Terespol thirteen times in October and November 2016, and again in March and May 2017 with a written application for international protection (paragraphs 6, 11 and 13). Each time the border guards issued decisions turning them away, recording that they had not said they were at risk of persecution but were trying to emigrate for economic or personal reasons (paragraph 9).
The Court recorded: “At 10.10 a.m. on 2 June 2017 the Court (the duty judge) decided to apply Rule 39 of the Rules of Court, indicating to the Polish Government that the applicants should not be removed to Belarus until 16 June 2017. The Government were informed of the interim measure before the planned time of expulsion. Nevertheless, the applicants were returned to Belarus at 11.25 a.m.” (paragraph 15). They came back that afternoon with an application for international protection and a copy of the Court’s letter, and were allowed to enter Poland (paragraph 16).
The Court held: “The fact that no proceedings in which the applicants’ applications for international protection could be reviewed were initiated on the sixteen occasions when the applicants were at the Polish border crossing constituted a violation of Article 3 of the Convention”; the Polish authorities “knowingly exposed them to a serious risk of chain refoulement and treatment prohibited by Article 3 of the Convention” (paragraph 45). The applicants had “attempted to cross a border in a legal manner, using an official checkpoint and subjecting themselves to border checks as required by the relevant law” (paragraph 55), and their case was “an exemplification of a wider State policy of refusing entry to foreigners coming from Belarus” (paragraph 56).
Caution
After they were admitted to Poland, the head of the Aliens Office refused them international protection on 14 December 2017, the Refugee Board upheld the refusal on 12 June 2018, and the applicants did not appeal to the administrative courts (paragraph 19). The judgment does not record what happened to them after that. Although they were returned to Belarus after the interim measure had been indicated, the Court made no finding under Article 34: notice of the application was given to the Government only for the complaints under Article 3, Article 4 of Protocol No. 4 and Article 13. Like M.K. and Others v. Poland (see that entry), the judgment concerns an official border crossing in 2016 and 2017. It does not decide the summary returns at the Belarusian border from the summer of 2021, which are before the Grand Chamber in A.R. and Others v. Poland, to be ruled on 24 November 2026.
Access to asylum
Pushbacks
Chain refoulement
Collective expulsion
Effective remedy
Interim measures
Article 3 ECHR
The court's own text
Public copy
Read in full in the English text on HUDOC (item 001-218069) on 8 November 2026.
This entry describes a court decision. It is a summary for readers who are learning how these cases work, not legal advice, and it does not tell anyone what to do in their own case. A decision may have been appealed, stayed, or superseded since this entry was written.
← All decisions in the register