CEDH · PRESS;HEARINGS;ENG — 1 septembre 2010

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BELGIUM AND GREECE     The European Court of Human Rights is holding a Grand Chamber hearing today, Wednesday   1   September 2010, at 9.15 a.m . in the case of M.S.S. v. Belgium and Greece (application no. 30696/09). The hearing will be broadcast from 2.30 p.m. on the Court’s Internet site ( http://www.echr.coe.int ).     The applicant, M.S.S., an Afghan national, left Kabul early in 2008 and, travelling via Iran and Turkey, entered the European Union through Greece.   On 10 February 2009, after passing through France, he arrived in Belgium, where he applied for asylum. By virtue of the “Dublin II” Regulation [1] , the Belgian authorities submitted a request for the Greek authorities to take charge of the asylum application. The applicant objected, arguing that he ran the risk of detention in Greece in appalling conditions, that there were deficiencies in the asylum system in Greece and that he feared ultimately being sent back to Afghanistan without any examination of the reasons why he had fled that country, where he claimed he had escaped a murder attempt by the Taliban in reprisal for his having worked as an interpreter for the air force troops stationed in Kabul.   On 15 June 2009 the applicant was nonetheless transferred to Greece, the Aliens Office considering that Belgium was not the country responsible for examining the asylum application under the Dublin II Regulation and that there was no reason to suspect that the Greek authorities would fail to honour their obligations in asylum matters under Community law and the Geneva Convention on refugee status. On arriving at Athens airport the applicant was immediately placed in detention in an adjacent building, where he says the conditions were overcrowded and insalubrious. Following his release on 18 June 2009, he lived in the street, with no means of subsistence. Today he is still waiting for his first interview with the Greek asylum authorities.   The applicant alleges that by sending him back to Greece the Belgian authorities exposed him to a risk of inhuman and degrading treatment there, and that he was indeed subsequently subjected to such treatment. He also complains that he was sent back to Greece in spite of the risk that the authorities there would order his expulsion to Afghanistan without examining the reasons that made him flee that country. He further contends that he had no effective remedy in Belgium against the expulsion order, and no real guarantee that his asylum application would follow its normal course in Greece, in particular because of the deficiencies in the Greek asylum system. He relies on Articles 2 (right to life), 3 (prohibition of inhuman or degrading treatment or punishment) and 13 (right to an effective remedy) of the European Convention on Human Rights.   The application was lodged with the European Court of Human Rights on 11 June 2009.   On 2 July 2009 it was decided to apply Rule 39 of the Rules of Court (interim measures) against Greece pending the outcome of the proceedings before the Court.   On 16 March 2010 the Chamber to which the case had been allocated relinquished jurisdiction in favour of the Grand Chamber.   The case will be heard by the Grand Chamber composed as follows:   Jean-Paul Costa (France), President , Christos Rozakis (Greece), Nicolas Bratza (the United Kingdom), Peer Lorenzen (Denmark), Françoise Tulkens (Belgium), Josep Casadevall (Andorra), Ireneu Cabral Barreto (Portugal) Elisabeth Steiner (Austria), Elisabet Fura (Sweden), Danutė Jočienė (Lithuania), Dragoljub Popović (Serbia), Mark Villiger (Liechtenstein), András Sajó (Hungary), Ledi Bianku (Albania), Nona Tsotsoria (Georgia), Ann Power (Ireland), Işıl Karakaş (Turkey), judges , Giovanni Bonello (Malta), Nebojša Vučinić (Montenegro), Khanlar Hajiyev (Azerbaijan), substitute judges , and also Michael O’Boyle , Deputy Registrar .     Representatives of the parties   Belgian Government :   Marc Tysebaert , Agent of Government ;       Edda Matterne , Counsel ;     Isabelle Niedliespascher , Co ‑ agent, and Valérie Demin , Advisers.         Greek Government :     Georgiadis Konstantinos and Myrto Germani , Counsel .   Applicant :       Zouhaier Chihaoui, Counsel .   Third-party interveners   The following third parties have been granted leave to submit written observations: - the Governments of the Netherlands and the United Kingdom; - the non-governmental organisations Aire Center and Amnesty International ; - the non-governmental organisation Greek Helsinki Monitor ; - the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (HCR); - the Council of Europe Commissioner for Human Rights, Thomas Hammarberg.   The Governments of the Netherlands and the United Kingdom, the Commissioner for Human Rights and the HCR have been given leave to intervene in the oral proceedings.   This is the first intervention of the Human Rights Commissioner in proceedings before the Court, under Article 36 § 3 introduced by Protocol No. 14 to the Convention (which entered into force on 1 June 2010).   ***   After the hearing the Court will begin its deliberations, which will be held in private. Its ruling in the case will, however, be made at a later stage.   ***   The press release is a document produced by the Registry. It does not bind the Court. Decisions, judgments and further information about the Court can be found on its Internet site . To receive the Court’s press releases, you can subscribe to the Court’s RSS feeds .   Press contacts [email protected] / +33 3 90 21 42 08 Céline Menu-Lange (telephone: + 33 3 90 21 58 77) Emma Hellyer (telephone : + 33 3 90 21 42 15) Tracey Turner-Tretz (telephone: + 33 3 88 41 35 30) Kristina Pencheva-Malinowski (telephone: + 33 3 88 41 35 70) Frédéric Dolt (telephone: + 33 3 90 21 53 39) Nina Salomon (telephone: + 33 3 90 21 49 79)   The European Court of Human Rights was set up in Strasbourg by the Council of Europe Member States in 1959 to deal with alleged violations of the 1950 European Convention on Human Rights. [1] An EC regulation under which European Union member States are required to determine, based on a hierarchy of objective criteria (Articles 5 to 14), which member State is responsible for examining an asylum application lodged on their territory.