CEDH · CASELAW;JUDGMENTS;CHAMBER;ENG — 7 octobre 2021

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border:0.75pt solid #949494; padding:1.02pt 5.03pt; vertical-align:top; background-color:#dfdfdf } .s2260A56 { width:33.42%; border:0.75pt solid #949494; padding:1.02pt 5.03pt; vertical-align:top; background-color:#dfdfdf } .sD86ACDB9 { width:10.04%; border:0.75pt solid #949494; padding:1.02pt 5.03pt; vertical-align:top } .s2CD31987 { width:42.68%; border:0.75pt solid #949494; padding:1.02pt 5.03pt; vertical-align:top } .s24B851EC { width:13.86%; border:0.75pt solid #949494; padding:1.02pt 5.03pt; vertical-align:top } .s567D904A { width:33.42%; border:0.75pt solid #949494; padding:1.02pt 5.03pt; vertical-align:top }     FIFTH SECTION CASE OF ZOLETIC AND OTHERS v. AZERBAIJAN (Application no. 20116/12)     JUDGMENT   Art 4 • Positive obligations • Domestic authorities’ failure to institute and conduct an effective investigation into migrant workers’ arguable claims of cross-border human trafficking and forced labour   STRASBOURG 7 October 2021   FINAL   07/01/2022       This judgment has become final under Article 44 § 2 of the Convention. It may be subject to editorial revision.   In the case of Zoletic and Others v. Azerbaijan, The European Court of Human Rights (Fifth Section), sitting as a Chamber composed of:   Síofra O’Leary, President,   Mārtiņš Mits,   Ganna Yudkivska,   Lətif Hüseynov,   Jovan Ilievski,   Ivana Jelić,   Mattias Guyomar, judges, and Victor Soloveytchik, Section Registrar, Having regard to: the application (no.   20116/12) against the Republic of Azerbaijan lodged with the Court under Article 34 of the Convention for the Protection of Human Rights and Fundamental Freedoms (“the Convention”) by thirty ‑ three Bosnia and Herzegovina nationals whose names are listed in the Appendix (“the applicants”), on 22 March 2012; the decision to give notice to the Azerbaijani Government (“the Government”) of the complaints under Articles 4 § 2 and 6 of the Convention and Article 1 of Protocol No. 1 to the Convention and to declare inadmissible the remainder of the application; the observations submitted by the respondent Government and the observations in reply submitted by the applicants; the comments submitted by the Government of Bosnia and Herzegovina who had exercised their right to intervene in the case (under   Article 36 § 1 of the Convention   and Rule 44 § 1 (b) of the Rules of Court); Having deliberated in private on 14 September 2021, Delivers the following judgment, which was adopted on that date: INTRODUCTION 1.     The case concerns the alleged failure by the respondent State to conduct an effective investigation into the applicants’ complaints that they had been victims of forced or compulsory labour and trafficking in human beings and the alleged failure by the domestic authorities and courts to deliver reasoned decisions to protect the applicants’ pecuniary interests, in breach of Articles 4 § 2 and 6 of the Convention and Article 1 of Protocol No. 1 to the Convention. THE FACTS 2.     The applicants’ personal details are set out in the Appendix. The applicants were represented by Mr M.   Bakhishov, a lawyer practising in Azerbaijan at the time of lodging the application. 3.     The Government were represented by their Agent, Mr Ç.   Əsgərov. 4.     The facts of the case, as submitted by the parties, may be summarised as follows. The applicants’ stay in Azerbaijan The applicants’ version of the events 5 .     According to the applicants, they were recruited in Bosnia and Herzegovina and taken to Azerbaijan, in groups of ten or more, as temporary foreign construction workers, by representatives of Serbaz Design and Construction LLC (“Serbaz”), which, according to the material in the case file, was a company registered in Azerbaijan in 2007 and active in the construction sector until approximately the end of 2009 (see paragraphs 25, 47, 57, 102-103 and 107 below). Most of the applicants stayed in Azerbaijan for periods of six months or longer. The applicants did not specify the exact dates of arrival in and departure from Azerbaijan of each applicant. 6.     Serbaz arranged their travel to Azerbaijan by air on the basis of tourist visas, issued on arrival at the Baku airport for periods of thirty days or more. Once they entered Azerbaijan, their passports were taken away by representatives of Serbaz. No individual work permits for them were obtained from the authorities. 7.     While in Baku, the applicants lived in five houses transformed into dormitories, in rooms with bunk beds shared by twelve to twenty-four people. The dormitories were not equipped with drinking water, running hot water, gas or heating. The conditions were unsanitary owing to the accumulation of garbage. The applicants were not provided with medical care. They had to comply with strict internal rules established by Serbaz. Notices about those rules, written in their native language, were posted on the walls and doors of the dormitories. While the applicants themselves did not provide a detailed account of all those rules, they noted that they had been taken to work and back by a bus and, at other times, had not been allowed to leave their accommodation without a special written permission issued by representatives of Serbaz. Violations of rules were punished by fines, beatings, detention in “a specially designated place” and physical threats. 8.     The applicants worked in the construction of several buildings in Baku, including Buta Palace, the Baku Expo Centre and 28   Mall. Some people brought by Serbaz worked in the construction of the Kur Olympics educational and training centre in Mingechevir, commissioned by the Ministry of Youth and Sports. 9 .     As from May 2009 the applicants were not paid any wages and could not meet the necessities of life. According to them, each worker was deprived of approximately 10,000 US Dollars (USD) in wages. 10 .     In support of their submissions made to the Court, the applicants submitted a copy of a report prepared by three NGOs from different countries named ASTRA (Serbia), La Strada (Bosnia and Herzegovina) and Cooperation for Social Development (Croatia), in cooperation with an Azerbaijani NGO named the Azerbaijan Migration Centre ( Azərbaycan Miqrasiya Mərkəzi – “AMC”), published on 27 November 2009 (“the ASTRA Report”). The contents of the ASTRA Report are summarised in paragraphs 101-117 below. 11 .     The applicants also submitted a copy of a letter by the Danish Refugee Council of 22 October 2010, addressed to AMC, which stated that in November 2009 the Danish Refugee Council had delivered humanitarian aid, including mostly groceries and other aid, the total value of which was 6,899 Azerbaijani manats (AZN), to migrants from Bosnia and Herzegovina, Serbia and North Macedonia. It specified that the aid had been funded by the International Organisation for Migration, whose representatives, along with the representatives of AMC, participated in the process of delivery of the aid to the migrants. The Government’s submissions concerning the events relating to the applicants’ stay in Azerbaijan 12.     Without presenting their own version of the events, the Government challenged the veracity of the applicants’ factual statements, noting that there was no evidence substantiating their allegations and proving “the existence” of those facts. The applicants’ departure from Azerbaijan 13.     Neither the applicants, nor the Government provided any account of the circumstances in which the applicants departed from Azerbaijan. 14.     It appears from the material in the case file that in October 2009 several NGOs, including AMC and the three NGOs from the Balkans mentioned in paragraph 10 above, became aware of the applicants’ alleged situation and their grievances concerning Serbaz. 15.     It appears that on 22 October 2009 and at an unspecified later date AMC sent letters to the Ministry of Internal Affairs and the Prosecutor General’s Office concerning the situation of Serbaz workers, but received no response (see paragraphs 36-39 below for more detail). 16 .     It further appears that in October and November 2009 Serbaz paid at least part of the accrued unpaid wages to the workers who were at that time in Azerbaijan, took them to the Baku international airport in groups, handed back their passports and arranged their return to their respective home countries by air. By the end of November 2009, all of the applicants had left Azerbaijan. Judicial proceedings instituted by the applicants in Azerbaijan 17.     After the applicants’ return to Bosnia and Herzegovina, Mr   M.   Bakhishov was hired to act as their representative in Azerbaijan. First-instance proceedings 18 .     On 19 July 2010 Mr Bakhishov lodged, on behalf of the applicants, a civil claim against Serbaz with the Sabail District Court seeking payment to each applicant of USD 10,000 in unpaid wages and USD 5,000 in respect of non-pecuniary damage caused by alleged “breaches of their rights and freedoms”. In their claim, they cited a number of provisions of the Constitution, the Labour Code and the Civil Code on, inter alia , protection of human rights and labour rights of foreigners, and prohibition of forced labour and compensation for damages. They also referred to Article 4 of the Convention. 19 .     The length of the applicants’ factual submissions spanned around one page of typed text. In particular, they made essentially the same submissions as those subsequently made before the Court (see paragraphs 5 ‑ 9 above). In addition, they mentioned one alleged incident involving one Serbaz worker which had occurred in December 2008, noting that this particular worker, M.V., had been fined USD 500 by a Serbaz employee Y.   (identified by first name only), for having brought some (apparently unauthorised) food items to Baku, and that subsequently Serbaz officials, B.V. and R.L., had confined him for three days inside a building under construction. The applicants further noted that, because they had not been paid their wages since May 2009, they had to buy groceries on credit and had thus become indebted to nearby shops and that “those of them who [had] objected to this situation [had been] punished”. Owing to this situation, they had been provided various humanitarian aid by the Danish Refugee Council, the OSCE Baku office, the Baku office of the International Organisation for Migration, ASTRA and AMC. 20 .     It appears from the copy of the applicants’ civil claim available in the case file that the documentary evidence submitted together with the claim consisted only of copies of passports of twenty-nine of the applicants (all applicants except applicants nos. 7, 10, 13 and 31 in the Appendix). All of those copies showed the main pages of the passports with the bearers’ names, photographs and dates of birth, dates of issue and expiry of the passports, passport numbers and so on, while fourteen of the copies also showed the page with the legible Azerbaijani visa (those fourteen copies concerned applicants nos. 1, 2, 3, 5, 6, 14, 15, 16, 18, 20, 21, 22, 24 and 33 in the Appendix). Of these, the visas issued to applicants nos. 14, 21 and 24, Muamer Kahric, Fehret Mustafica and Drago Peric, were single-entry visas valid for three months and issued in May 2009 or later. The visas issued to applicants nos. 15 and 16, Miodrag Kaurin and Predrag Kaurin, were multiple-entry visas valid for one year and issued in August 2009 and July 2009 respectively. All other visas were single-entry visas valid for one month. Out of these, the visa to applicant no. 18, Sabahudin Makic, was issued in October 2008, while all other visas were issued in May 2009 or later. In addition to the above fourteen copies, copies of two other passports also depicted what might have been an Azerbaijani visa, however these two copies were not fully legible. In so far as legible, a one-month visa to applicant no. 23, Elvedin Opardija, might have been issued in March 2009, while a one-month visa to applicant no. 32, Goran Vujatovic, might have been issued in June 2008. Out of the remaining thirteen copies of passports which did not include copies of visas, four included pages with Serbian or Croatian border exit and/or entry stamps, corresponding to various months of 2009. The remaining nine copies of passports did not include either copies of pages with visas or border entry or exit stamps. 21.     No other evidence or documents, such as any NGOs reports, was listed as evidence submitted in support of the claim. In respect of such other evidence submitted before the first-instance court, the applicants’ representative noted, in his submissions before the Court as well in his subsequent appeal before the Baku Court of Appeal (see paragraph 29 below), that during the first-instance proceedings he had attempted to present to the court a copy of the ASTRA Report and that he had also formally requested the court to send inquiries to the above-mentioned NGOs and international organisations which had provided aid to Serbaz workers before their departure from Azerbaijan. However, according to the lawyer, the court refused to admit the ASTRA Report and rejected his other request (no copies of any interim decisions concerning those requests are available in the case file). 22.     The defendant, Serbaz, was represented by a lawyer who submitted that, for the purposes of several large-scale and important construction projects in Azerbaijan, Serbaz had invited a number of foreign workers pursuant to a secondment agreement concluded on 14 May 2007 with its parent company, Acora Business Ltd (“Acora”), a company registered in Anguilla, British West Indies. Seconded workers had been employees of Acora, which had been responsible for payment of their wages and all other employment-related matters. Under the secondment agreement, Serbaz had been responsible only for providing them with accommodation and meals. The lawyer of Serbaz argued that the applicants’ claims against Serbaz in respect of pecuniary and non-pecuniary damage were unsubstantiated. 23.     In support of its submissions, Serbaz presented to the court uncertified photocopies of its charter and the secondment agreement between Acora and Serbaz (not available in the case file). It explained that it was no longer in possession of the originals of those documents, because those documents had been “taken away” from Serbaz by the Acora management and had not been returned. In this connection, Serbaz also submitted a copy of the announcement it had placed in the Vergiler newspaper, published on 28 July 2010 (several days after the applicants had lodged their claim – see paragraph 18 above). The announcement stated that the originals of Serbaz’s founding document (charter) and tax identification certificate had been lost and were therefore no longer valid. 24.     On 21 October 2010 the Sabail District Court dismissed the applicants’ claim. 25 .     The court noted that, according to the registration certificate issued by the Ministry of Justice, Serbaz had been registered in Azerbaijan on 16   March 2007. According to the copy of its charter, it was a wholly-owned subsidiary of Acora, which had been registered in Anguilla on 30 June 2006. Following the loss of the original of the charter, on 11 August 2010 the Baku City Tax Department re-issued to Serbaz certified copies of its “founding documents”. The court had further regard to the copy of the secondment agreement of 14 May 2007 between Acora and Serbaz, which stated that Acora undertook to second staff to Serbaz for maximum terms of three months. According to the secondment agreement, the seconded staff were considered to be employees of Acora, which was responsible for paying their wages. 26 .     The court further referred to letters by various authorities, in particular (as summarised in the court’s judgment): (i)     a letter of 19 November 2009 of the Ministry of Taxes, addressed to AMC, where it was stated that Serbaz had submitted tax declarations in the years 2006 to 2009 in respect of the amounts paid for “hired labour”. However, that form of declaration did not provide for a name-by-name breakdown of taxes paid in respect of each worker; (ii)     a letter of 17 December 2009 of the Department on Combating Trafficking in Human Beings of the Ministry of Internal Affairs (“the Anti ‑ Trafficking Department”), where the latter stated that, at an unspecified time, it had reviewed a request by citizens of Bosnia and Herzegovina, Serbia and North Macedonia working at Serbaz, complaining that they had been subjected to human trafficking. However, because the last workers had left Azerbaijan by 26 November 2009, after having received from the company a final settlement of due wages, it had not been possible to investigate their complaints; and (iii)     a letter of 22 December 2009 by the Commissioner for Human Rights (Ombudsman), noting that Serbaz had carried out construction work at various development and construction projects of State significance, that according to information provided by Serbaz it had become necessary to lay off a number of workers owing to the company’s difficult financial situation, and that those workers who had wished to return to their home countries had been paid accrued wages due to them and had been repatriated in a planned manner. 27.     Based on the above, the court found that the applicants had been directly employed by Acora and could not be considered as employees of Serbaz, that their wages were to be paid by Acora, that they had been merely seconded to Serbaz, that there had been no employment contracts signed between the applicants and Serbaz, and that the applicants had not presented any evidence to the contrary. Therefore, Serbaz could not be liable for any alleged non-payment of wages or other employment-related complaints. As a limited liability company, neither was it liable for the obligations of its parent company before third persons. Accordingly, the applicants’ claim against Serbaz had neither a statutory, nor a contractual basis, and the claim could be lodged only against Acora. 28.     Lastly, the court held that the applicants’ allegations concerning violations of their rights and freedoms were unsubstantiated. It noted that, as it had appeared from the above-mentioned letters of various State authorities, it had not been possible to establish that any rights or freedoms of foreign workers had been breached by Serbaz. Appellate and cassation proceedings 29 .     On 1 December 2010 (with an addendum on 24 January 2011) the applicants’ lawyer lodged an appeal against the first-instance judgment, essentially reiterating the previous submissions. In addition, he made, inter alia , the following factual and legal submissions: (i)     before the applicants’ departure from Azerbaijan, they had received aid (foodstuffs and medical and other aid) from various international organisations and NGOs mentioned above. He noted that he had lodged a request with the first-instance court to send inquiries to those organisations in order to confirm this fact and to obtain information about the aid provided, however the request had been rejected; (ii)     he had attempted to submit the ASTRA Report to the first-instance court as evidence, but the court had refused to admit it without any substantiation; (iii)     the fact that the applicants had stayed and worked in Azerbaijan on the basis of tourist visas and without work permits had been in breach of the domestic law, in particular the legislation on tourism, and indicated that they had been subjected to forced labour; (iv)     in fact, the applicants had been employees of Serbaz, and not of Acora, and Serbaz had unlawfully subjected them to forced labour without having signed employment contracts in accordance with the requirements of the Constitution, the Labour Code, the Law on labour migration, other Azerbaijani legislation, as well as the international treaties to which Azerbaijan was a party. In this respect, AMC had also inquired from the Ministry of Justice (the authority responsible for registration of legal entities) whether Acora “had really existed” as a company, but had received no reply; and (v)     the first-instance court’s reliance on copies of documents submitted by Serbaz, including the uncertified copy of the secondment agreement, was in breach of the requirements of Article 89 of the Code of Civil Procedure (“the CCP”) as those documents were inadmissible as evidence. 30.     The defendant’s representative reiterated his submissions made before the first-instance court. 31 .     During the appellate hearing, the court questioned as a witness a representative of AMC. She stated, in general terms, that she had been in the houses where the applicants stayed in Azerbaijan. Workers staying in those houses had complained to her NGO about their living conditions, wages, lack of medical insurance and insufficient food. On an unspecified date she had written, on behalf of 272 of those workers, to the Prosecutor General’s Office about their complaints. Generally, as a result of involvement of AMC, the workers’ situation had improved and they had been provided with better meals and with medical assistance. Eventually, they had been paid their wages, given their documents back and returned to their home countries. 32.     On 8 February 2011 the Baku Court of Appeal upheld the first-instance judgment. Besides reiterating the findings of the first-instance court, it also held that the provisions of the Law on labour migration and the International Convention on the Protection of the Rights of All Migrant Workers and Members of Their Families (“the ICRMW”) were not applicable to the applicants, because they concerned lawful “migrant workers”, whereas the applicants had not been “individuals who had migrated from one country to another on lawful grounds”. Instead, the applicants had been “foreign employees” who had concluded employment contracts with a foreign company (Acora) abroad and had been temporarily seconded to Azerbaijan to work at the subsidiary of that company. According to Article   6 of the Labour Code, the provisions of that Code did not apply to such foreign employees. 33.     The appellate court found that the applicants’ complaints concerning breaches of their rights by Serbaz were unsubstantiated. It did not address the applicants’ lawyer’s submissions concerning the first-instance court’s alleged refusal to admit the ASTRA Report and rejection of his other requests. 34 .     The applicants lodged a cassation appeal, reiterating their arguments. They also noted that, despite the argument by Serbaz and the lower courts’ finding that they had been seconded to Azerbaijan for periods not exceeding three months, they had in fact stayed and worked in Azerbaijan for periods of six months and longer, and that this was reflected in the copies of their passports enclosed with their claim. On 23 September 2011 the Supreme Court upheld the appellate court’s judgment, briefly reiterating the lower court’s findings and reasoning. Documents concerning other complaints and requests addressed to the authorities in Azerbaijan 35 .     Copies of the following documents were submitted by the Government of Bosnia and Herzegovina. 36 .     A copy of an email from AMC to several recipients, including ASTRA, dated 28 December 2010, stated that the president of AMC was sending to the recipients “the translated version of [AMC’s] letter to the Prosecutor General”. 37 .     Moreover, an English translation of a letter, without a date, from the president of AMC to the Prosecutor General of Azerbaijan, which was apparently in attachment to the above email, provided essentially the same information about foreign workers of Serbaz as that given by the applicants to the domestic courts (see paragraphs 5-9 and 19 above). The letter further stated that, in AMC’s view, Serbaz officials had committed criminal offences under various provisions of Article 144-1 (trafficking in human beings) of the Criminal Code. It further noted that, on 22 October 2009, AMC had sent a letter to the Ministry of Internal Affairs asking for an investigation of the mentioned circumstances, but that no measures had been taken. Lastly, the Prosecutor General was requested to supervise the matter and take measures. 38.     Furthermore, the Government of Bosnia and Herzegovina also submitted an uncertified “unofficial translation” into English of a decision of the Supreme Court of Azerbaijan of 12 July 2010. According to the contents of this document, AMC had lodged a civil claim with the Sabail District Court against the Prosecutor General’s Office and the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, asking the court to order the above authorities to “take a relevant procedural decision” in connection with AMC’s letter of 22   October 2009. AMC was represented in the court proceedings by Mr   M.   Bakhishov. The claim was declared inadmissible by the Sabail District Court on 28 December 2009, which held that such a request could not have been made in the form of a civil claim, but should have been lodged under the procedure of judicial supervision in criminal proceedings under Article 449 of the Code of Criminal Procedure (“the CCrP”). This inadmissibility decision was upheld by the Baku Court of Appeal on 19   January 2010. By decision of 12 July 2010 the Supreme Court quashed the Baku Court of Appeal’s decision and remitted the case for a new examination, finding that there were no procedural decisions delivered in criminal proceedings which could be challenged under Article 449 of the CCrP and that, in such circumstances, the plaintiff could challenge the alleged inactivity of the authorities in civil proceedings. 39 .     No other information is available in the case file as to the outcome of the proceedings mentioned in the unofficial translation of the above-mentioned decision. 40.     The Azerbaijani Government and the applicants did not expressly and specifically comment on the above-mentioned documents and translations submitted by the Government of Bosnia and Herzegovina. Criminal proceedings in Bosnia and Herzegovina concerning persons affiliated with Serbaz and the related legal-assistance correspondence between the authorities of Bosnia and Herzegovina and Azerbaijan 41.     The factual circumstances described below transpire from the documents submitted by the Government of Bosnia and Herzegovina, unless otherwise indicated. 42 .     In late 2009 the Prosecutor’s Office of Bosnia and Herzegovina initiated a criminal investigation in connection with the allegations of forced labour and trafficking by Serbaz management and employees, under Article   250(2) (organised crime), Article 185 (establishment of slavery and transport of slaves) and Article 186 (trafficking in human beings) of the Criminal Code of Bosnia and Herzegovina. Eventually, after completion of the investigation, on 7 July 2014 a total of thirteen nationals of Bosnia and Herzegovina were indicted in the framework of these proceedings. Eleven of them were charged with the criminal offences of organised crime in conjunction with trafficking in human beings, one with the organised crime in conjunction with trafficking in human beings and money laundering under Article 209(3) of the Criminal Code, and one with the organised crime in conjunction with money laundering. Legal-assistance requests of the Bosnia and Herzegovina authorities and the information provided by the Azerbaijani authorities (a)    The first legal-assistance request 43 .     On 29 April 2010 the Prosecutor’s Office of Bosnia and Herzegovina sent a legal-assistance request to the relevant authorities of the Republic of Azerbaijan under the European Convention on Mutual Legal Assistance in Criminal Matters (“the Mutual Assistance Convention”). It informed the Azerbaijani authorities that, at the time the request was made, eleven Bosnia and Herzegovina nationals, including one unidentified, and one unidentified Azerbaijani national (known only by first name, S.) were suspected of having committed the above-mentioned criminal offences. In particular, the Prosecutor’s Office of Bosnia and Herzegovina had received information from former workers of Serbaz that, while they had worked in Azerbaijan, the above-mentioned suspected persons had taken away their travel documents, that the workers had been accommodated in places with inhumane living conditions, that they had been subjected to various unjustified punishments, that their freedom of movement had been restricted, that they had been exposed to mental and sometimes even physical abuse, and that they had not been paid for their work. 44 .     The Prosecutor’s Office of Bosnia and Herzegovina requested the Azerbaijani authorities to provide, inter alia , the following information: (i)     various information on the business activities of Serbaz in Azerbaijan; (ii)     whether workers from Bosnia and Herzegovina had been registered as foreigners with temporary residence in Azerbaijan and the list of those workers of Serbaz; (iii)     whether the Azerbaijani authorities had received any official reports of unlawful stay in Azerbaijan of any workers from Bosnia and Herzegovina or any complaints from Bosnia and Herzegovina nationals concerning any criminal or other offences or human rights violations and, if so, what action had been taken by the Azerbaijani authorities; (iv)     whether in late 2009 the Azerbaijani authorities had taken control of the construction sites where Serbaz had conducted its activities; and (v)     establishment of identity of the Azerbaijani national, S. (b)    The response to the first legal-assistance request 45.     On 11 April 2011 the Embassy of Azerbaijan in Ankara transmitted the response of the Azerbaijani authorities to the Embassy of Bosnia and Herzegovina in Ankara. The response included the following documents: (i)     a letter of 21 October 2010 of the Baku City Prosecutor’s Office forwarding the legal-assistance request, which it had received via the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, to the Baku City Main Police Office of the Ministry of Internal Affairs; (ii)     a letter of 10 November 2010 of the Baku City Main Police Office responding to the above-mentioned letter (informing that there was no information in the centralised database as to whether six of the mentioned Bosnia and Herzegovina nationals had crossed the Azerbaijani border and that one other, M.V., the “head” of Serbaz, had permanent residence in Moscow) and forwarding the request further to the Anti-Trafficking Department of the Ministry of Internal Affairs; (iii)     a letter of 11 November 2010 of the Baku City Prosecutor’s Office addressed to the Operations and Statistical Information Department of the Ministry of Internal Affairs, requesting information on entry to and exit from the territory of Azerbaijan of the Bosnia and Herzegovina nationals mentioned in the legal-assistance request (no response to this letter is available in the case file); and (iv)     a letter of 18 November 2010 of the Anti-Trafficking Department responding to the letters mentioned in points (i) and (ii) above. 46 .     In the above-mentioned letter of 18 November 2010, the Anti ‑ Trafficking Department provided, inter alia , the information summarised in paragraphs 47-54 below. 47 .     The Anti-Trafficking Department had examined “information and requests” received by it concerning nationals of Bosnia and Herzegovina, Serbia and North Macedonia having been victims of forced labour. It had determined that Serbaz, which was a subsidiary of Acora, had been contracted by certain State authorities and private companies to construct various buildings in Baku and Mingechevir. During the period from 2007 to 2009 around 750 workers from Bosnia and Herzegovina, Serbia and North Macedonia had been taken by Serbaz to Azerbaijan under tourist visas. They had been accommodated in seventeen flats in Baku and ten flats in Mingechevir. In order to save their own money, some of the workers had voluntarily agreed to be accommodated, free of charge, in larger dormitories at Serbaz’s expense. 48.     The workers had been provided with return flight tickets, four daily meals, transportation to work sites and back, and medical assistance. On average, each worker had been paid USD 2,000 to USD 2,500 per month. Since there were no embassies of their respective countries in Azerbaijan (the closest embassies being in Ankara) and since any loss of their identity documents in Azerbaijan would have created problems in such a situation, their passports had been taken away by the Serbaz official and Bosnia and Herzegovina national, S.L., for necessary registrations and for safeguarding purposes. Where necessary, the passports had been given back to specific workers and then returned for safeguarding. Several workers had travelled back to their countries for family reasons and had come back to Azerbaijan. 49 .     After working for a period of six months in Azerbaijan, each worker had the right to one-month’s leave and, at this point, most workers had chosen simply to return to their countries. Two named workers had told the Anti-Trafficking Department that they had returned to work in Azerbaijan for a second time because they were content with the working conditions and wages. Eight named workers had married Azerbaijani women and eventually settled in Azerbaijan. 50.     In August and October 2009, two named workers had died from heart problems. 51.     As to the examination of alleged violations of some workers’ rights by Serbaz, it was determined that those (unnamed) workers had been reprimanded for violating internal disciplinary rules by consuming alcohol during working hours and avoiding work and had been sent back to their home countries. Moreover, according to statements by the “majority of workers”, two individuals, including M.V. (the same name as the worker mentioned in the applicants’ civil claim – see paragraph 19 above), had been sent back for regularly consuming alcohol and breaking the relevant disciplinary rules applicable in the construction industry. 52.     During their stay in Azerbaijan, all workers had been in possession of personal mobile phones and could have contacted any country in the world. By the end of 2009, Serbaz had exceeded its construction targets but had found itself in a difficult financial situation as it had run out of available funds. Because of this, it had to lay off staff who had become redundant. 53.     In October 2009 diplomats of Serbia and Bosnia and Herzegovina had visited Baku, met with Serbaz workers, inquired about their working and living conditions and had discussions with the Serbaz management concerning payment of due wages and other shortcomings. During those meetings, workers had given the diplomats a collectively signed statement that they had no grievances against the company. All workers who had expressed the wish to return to their countries had been paid their due wages accrued throughout the end of October 2009 and returned back to their countries in an organised manner. 54 .     Several unnamed “questioned workers” had stated that they had not been beaten, insulted, exploited or forced to do any work by Serbaz. Accordingly, referring to all of the above, the Anti-Trafficking Department had concluded that the allegations of foreign workers having been subjected to forced labour on the territory of Azerbaijan had not been confirmed. (c)    The second legal-assistance request and the response 55.     It appears that in September 2011 the Bosnia and Herzegovina authorities requested further information from the Azerbaijani authorities concerning, apparently, the business relations between Serbaz and the Ministry of Youth and Sports of Azerbaijan. 56.     In response, they were provided with a copy of a letter of 18 January 2012 of the Ministry of Youth and Sports addressed to the Nasimi District Prosecutor’s Office of Azerbaijan, providing detailed information, which can be summarised as follows. 57 .     In March 2007 the Ministry of Youth and Sports concluded its first contract with Serbaz concerning the planned construction of a sports and exhibition complex. Subsequently, it commissioned Serbaz in connection with two other renovation and construction projects and, during the period between 2007 and 2009 inclusively, concluded several contracts with Serbaz concerning those projects and made a number of payments to Serbaz under those contracts. In total, the Ministry paid 54,257,447 Azerbaijani manats (AZN) to Serbaz under those contracts. (d)    The third legal-assistance request and the response 58.     In November 2012 the Prosecutor’s Office of Bosnia and Herzegovina sent a third request to the Azerbaijani authorities, informing them that, in addition to and in parallel with the criminal investigation, it was conducting a financial investigation of Serbaz’s activities. It requested information on all transactions linked to the Serbaz account at the International Bank of Azerbaijan in 2009 and 2010. It also inquired whether Serbaz had any other bank accounts in Azerbaijan and, if so, requested similar information on transactions linked to those accounts. 59 .     In January 2013 the Azerbaijani authorities provided the requested information in the form of printouts of bank statements. Criminal convictions of four defendants in Bosnia and Herzegovina 60 .     According to copies of two judgments submitted by the Government of Bosnia and Herzegovina, on 28 February and 10 July 2017, respectively, the Court of Bosnia and Herzegovina convicted two of the thirteen accused persons (see paragraph 42 above), S.L. and N.T., based on plea bargain agreements. Those judgments have become final. 61.     The Court of Bosnia and Herzegovina found that there was sufficient evidence on the basis of the guilty plea and evidence submitted by the prosecution to conclude that those two persons were guilty of the criminal offences of trafficking and organised crime under Articles 186(1) and 250(2) of the Criminal Code of Bosnia and Herzegovina. S.L. was sentenced to one year and nine months’ imprisonment. N.T. received a conditional prison sentence. The facts established by the Court of Bosnia and Herzegovina in those two judgments were as follows. 62.     Between August 2007 and November 2009, S.L. and N.T. were part of an organised crime group that exploited nationals of Bosnia and Herzegovina, Serbia and North Macedonia by forcing them to work on construction sites in Azerbaijan. The group carried out these acts under the guise of Serbaz, which was a branch of Acora, a company registered in a British oversees territory. Serbaz entered into contracts with the Ministry of Youth and Sports of Azerbaijan, providing that Serbaz would complete certain construction projects. Victims were told by employees of Serbaz that, if they moved to Azerbaijan for employment, they would receive good salaries, excellent accommodation, health insurance, and food expenses. In addition, their visas would be paid for and their stay in Azerbaijan would be regularised. Serbaz arranged the victims’ flights to Azerbaijan. Once they arrived, the employees of Serbaz seized their travel documents, claiming that this was necessary in order to regularise their residence. The victims’ travel documents were not returned to them, preventing them from leaving the country to return home. Serbaz placed victims in inadequate, overcrowded accommodation, and abused their alien status, their lack of knowledge of the local language and their dependence on Serbaz in order to exploit them for labour. The Serbaz management meted out both physical and psychological punishment on victims, for example, by forcing them to perform strenuous and prolonged physical labour and subjecting them to beatings. Victims were paid wages which were arbitrarily reduced and they were denied the employment benefits promised to them on the ground that they had committed “disciplinary violations”. Victims were punished and fined for smoking cigarettes, for consuming alcohol outside working hours and for leaving the accommodation. Victims were deprived of their liberty as they were prevented from leaving the accommodation outside of working hours. They were deprived of adequate food, only receiving small portions of low-calorie meals. Many workers lost significant weight while working for Serbaz. Victims were expected to work shifts from twelve hours to as many as twenty-four or thirty-six hours continuously, six or seven days per week. Victims were also deprived of access to adequate healthcare and some developed untreatable illnesses.