A template for protecting human rights during the ‘refugee crisis’? Immigration detention and the expulsion of migrants in a recent ECtHR Grand Chamber ruling

Background and furher information:

On 15 December 2016 the European Court of Human Rights Grand Chamber handed down its judgment in the case of Khlaifia and Others v. Italy, which partially reversed the Chamber ruling issued on the 1 September 2015.

The applicants are three Tunisian nationals attempted to enter Europe by crossing the Mediterranean Sea from northern Africa to the Italian coast. After being intercepted by the coast guard, they were kept at a reception centre in Lampedusa for several days. When a fire partially damaged the centre, they were relocated to a sports facility which they managed to escape. While moving around the island they were eventually stopped by the police and later confined on board ships moored in the harbour, together with hundreds of other migrants. From there, they were transported to the airport, where they departed back to Tunisia.

Whilst the events took place in 2011, during that peculiar time which was in the immediate aftermath of the Arab Spring, the issues raised before the Court by the applicants and the principle outlined by the judgments appears relevant to the current refugee crisis and its management by the European Union Institutions and Member States.

This analysis reflects on a judgement from the European Court of Human Rights in the case of Khlaifia and Others v. Italy about immigration detention at the Italian borders (including the island of Lampedusa) and the expulsion of aliens from Italy to Tunisia.