Litigation Toolkit on Statelessness: Volume II
October 2022
an effective remedy requires some form of adversarial proceedings, and that the
competent independent appeals authority must be able to assess whether the
conclusion that a person is a threat to national security, which justifies deportation, is
arbitrary or unreasonable.
•
Auad v. Bulgaria, Application No. 46390/10 (11 October 2011)
The case originated in an application against Bulgaria lodged by a stateless person of
Palestinian origin. He had obtained subsidiary protection in Bulgaria, but was later
served an expulsion order on national security grounds, detained for removal for 18
months and then released due to the impossibility of implementing the expulsion order.
The Court reiterates that States have an obligation to identify a destination country
in removal orders, stating that “In cases of aliens detained with a view to deportation,
lack of clarity as to the destination country could hamper effective control of the
authorities’ diligence in handling the deportation”. The Court held that detention with
an uncertain destination is violates Articles 3, 5, and 13 ECHR.
•
Kim v. Russia, Application No. 44260/13 (17 October 2014)
This case concerns a person born in 1962 in Uzbekistan, who has been residing in Russia
since 1990. After the fall of the Soviet Union, the applicant did not acquire a new
citizenship, and was therefore stateless. He was arrested and detained until expulsion
because of his undocumented status, and released after two years based on the expiry
of the time-limit for enforcement of the expulsion order. The applicant brought the case
to the ECtHR on the grounds that appeal procedures and the conditions of his detention
had been inadequate. The Court ruled that there had been a violation of Articles 3 and 5
ECHR.
•
Mainov v. Russia, Application No. 11556/17 (15 May 2018)
This case concerns a stateless applicant born in the Tajikistan Soviet Socialist Republic
of the Soviet Union, who was arrested for homelessness in Russia. The District Court
ruled that he had to be preventively detained until his expulsion to Tajikistan. Russia
tried to obtain travel documentation for the applicant, overlooking the fact that the
applicant was not a Tajik national and that Tajikistan had no legal obligation to admit
him, resulting in his preventive detention for two years. The Court found a violation of
Article 5 ECHR, as the applicant’s detention was not carried out in good faith due to the
lack of a realistic prospect of his expulsion and the domestic authorities’ failure to
conduct the proceedings with due diligence.
•
Shoygo v. Ukraine, Application No. 29662/13 (30 September 2021)
The applicant was born in the Russian Federation and his birth was not duly registered.
Lacking identity documents and unable to prove his nationality, he was detained in
Ukraine for the purpose of expulsion. The Court held that the authorities did not act
diligently when they waited almost eleven months to contact the Russian embassy and
obtain documentation to evidence the applicant's Russian nationality, and failed to
review the lawfulness of his detention and to provide an effective remedy, in violation of
Articles 5(1), (4) and (5) ECHR
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