CEDH · CASELAW;CLIN;ENG — 16 juin 2005

.s3ABFC313 { font-size:10pt } .sEB86A30B { margin-top:0pt; margin-bottom:14pt; page-break-after:avoid } .sBB9EE52A { font-family:Arial } .sA241FE93 { margin-top:0pt; margin-bottom:18pt; text-align:justify; page-break-after:avoid; border-bottom:0.75pt solid #000000; padding-bottom:1pt } .s2EF62ED2 { margin-top:0pt; margin-bottom:0pt; font-size:12pt } .s4DDA3AA3 { font-family:Arial; font-weight:bold; font-style:italic } .s29100277 { font-family:Arial; font-weight:bold } .s32563E28 { margin-top:0pt; margin-bottom:0pt } .s8F2B0B1B { margin-top:12pt; margin-bottom:12pt; page-break-after:avoid; font-size:12pt } .sA36B60A1 { font-family:Arial; font-style:italic } .s5F48796F { margin-top:12pt; margin-bottom:0pt; text-align:justify } .s5CB9E8AB { margin-top:12pt; margin-bottom:0pt; text-align:justify; border-bottom:1pt solid #000000; padding-bottom:1pt } .sDF790F1E { margin-top:12pt; margin-bottom:0pt; text-align:center } .s7ED160F0 { text-decoration:none } .s3DC36BA9 { font-family:Arial; text-decoration:underline; color:#0069d6 } Information Note on the Court’s case-law No. 76 June 2005 Berisha and Haljiti v. "the former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia" (dec.) - 18670/03 Decision 16.6.2005 [Section III] Article 4 of Protocol No. 4 Prohibition of collective expulsion of aliens Single decision from authorities refusing an asylum request of two persons: inadmissible   The applicants are spouses and nationals of Serbia and Montenegro, from the Kosovo province. They are of Roma ethnic origin. They claim that they were harassed by Albanians from their village on a daily basis, and forced by members of the Kosovo Liberation Army and other villagers to leave their house. In 1999, they fled Kosovo and obtained humanitarian protection in the former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia. In view of the inappropriate living conditions of the campsite, they went back to Kosovo, where the first applicant was hired as an interpreter for the KFOR administration. They allege to have continued being frequently subjected to verbal assaults, and that the first applicant, who was involved in work in favour of Roma rights, suffered constant discriminatory practices by his Albanian colleagues. After the first applicant lost his job, they returned to the former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia and applied for asylum. Their request was dismissed, as was their subsequent appeal to the Supreme Court, which found that their fear of persecution was based solely on their general feeling of insecurity due to their ethnic origin. Although the applicants were requested to leave the country, they stayed and were subsequently stopped by the police in an attempt to enter Greece illegally. They were tried the following day in court and found guilty of a minor offence in breach of the Law on border crossing. The applicants were fined, banned from entering the country for 2 years, and expelled to Serbia and Montenegro. In 2003, they fled Kosovo again and were granted asylum in Hungary on account of the unstable and insecure situation in Kosovo. Inadmissible under Article 4 of Protocol No. 4: The applicants complained that they had been subjected to collective expulsion, contrary to this provision, since the authorities had issued a single decision for both of them without providing reasonable and objective examination of the particular circumstances of each. However, the Court found that the mere fact that the authorities had issued a single decision for both of them, as spouses, was a consequence of their own conduct: they had arrived together to the former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia, lodged their asylum request jointly, produced the same evidence and submitted joint appeals. In these circumstances, the applicants’ deportation did not reveal any appearance of a collective expulsion: manifestly ill-founded.   © Council of Europe/European Court of Human Rights This summary by the Registry does not bind the Court. Click here for the Case-Law Information Notes