Title CASE OF M.A. AND OTHERS v. BULGARIA (Application no. 5115/18)
Publisher Council of Europe: European Court of Human Rights
Publication Date 20 February 2020
Country Bulgaria | China
Topics Arbitrary arrest and detention | Expulsion | Freedom from torture, inhuman and degrading treatment | Uighur
Citation / Document Symbol ECLI:CE:ECHR:2020:0220JUD000511518
Other Languages / Attachments Legal Summary
Cite as CASE OF M.A. AND OTHERS v. BULGARIA (Application no. 5115/18), ECLI:CE:ECHR:2020:0220JUD000511518 , Council of Europe: European Court of Human Rights, 20 February 2020, available at: https://www.refworld.org/cases,ECHR,5e628b724.html [accessed 18 May 2023]
Comments The Court had therefore to examine whether any effective guarantees existed that protected the applicants against arbitrary refoulement by the Bulgarian authorities to China, be it direct or indirect. No destination country had been indicated in the initial decisions for the applicants’ repatriation or in the expulsion decisions. According to the Supreme Administrative Court, the determination of such a country and the assessment of any risk the applicants would face if returned to China fell to be carried out in the process of implementation of the expulsion decisions. However, such an approach offered no guarantees that the Bulgarian authorities would examine with the necessary rigour the question of the risk the applicants would face if returned to the country they had fled. It was unclear by reference to what standards and on the basis of what information the authorities would determine, if at all, the relevant risk. Lastly, there was no indication as to whether, if the authorities chose to send the applicants to a third country, they would properly examine whether they would in turn be sent from there to China without due consideration for the risk of ill‑treatment and even death. In sum, there were no effective guarantees, in the process of implementation of the repatriation or the expulsion decisions against the applicants, that they would not be sent back to China.
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