Greece found guilty by European Court of Human Rights over immigration cases

By @Polyfimos, translated from Greek by @IrateGreek

The European Court of Human Rights (ECHR) ruled that Greece was guilty of violations of the right to liberty and safety and of humane treatment of migrants in the case of Albanian minor immigrant Albano Barjamaj.



The young immigrant, who was a minor at the time of events, was arrested for entering Greece without legal documents. He was detained for three days and was deported without being given the opportunity to challenge the legality of his detention. The ECHR accepted Barjamaj's claims, found Greece guilty and imposed on the country a fine of €2,000 for moral damage.

In another decision following a lawsuit by Ketevan Chkhartishvili, the ECHR found Greece guilty of violating article 3 of the European Covenant on Human Rights, which forbids inhuman and degrading treatment. The plaintiff, who is a Georgian national, suffered ill-treatment at the hands of the Greek authorities during her detention and until she was deported. The ECHR there again accepted her claims and sentenced Greece to pay a fine of €8,000 for physical and moral damage.

Violations of due process and ill-treatment of immigrants in detention centres in Greece has been a constant concern in Greece over the past years and has attracted severe criticism from various human rights groups, for example from the Greek Council for Refugees, who published last year a specific report on the situation of underage asylum seekers on Greece's northern borders.

Source: Athens-Macedonia News Agency