Case T.S. and M.S. v Greece [Application No 15008/2019]

On 3 October 2024, the European Court of Human Rights (ECtHR) convicted Greece for violation of Articles 3 (prohibition of inhuman and degrading treatment) , 5&1 (right to liberty and security) and 5&4 (right to apply to a court) of the European Convention on Human Rights (ECHR), for the violations suffered in 2019 by two unaccompanied minor sisters from Afghanistan, who were found, despite their apparent vulnerability as minor girls, homeless and subsequently detained in an adult women's cell under "protective custody" at the Pre-removal Detention Centre of Taurus..

            The unaccompanied minors were represented before the ECtHR by the Legal Unit of the Greek Council for Refugees (GCR).In their application, the minors complained, inter alia, of inhuman and degrading living conditions, their confinement and their placement in 'protective custody' in a detention centre resulting in their de facto detention, and their inability to challenge this decision.

            The Court, inter alia, stressed that the Greek authorities had failed to take prompt action to accommodate thememphasizing that the large number of pending applications for accommodation for unaccompanied minors does not relieve the authorities of their positive obligations to protect them. Furthermore, specifically with regard to the placement of minors in "protective custody", the Court accepted the minors' arguments that this constituted an unlawful deprivation of their liberty and that there was no legal remedy available to the applicants to challenge the decision being an oral order of Prosecutorial Authorities. The Court further found a violation of Article 3 of the ECHR regarding the conditions to which the minors were exposed during their confinement at the Tavros Pre-removal detention centre.

            Previously, on 21/3/2019, GCR had succeeded obtaining an interim measures decision (R 39) from the ECtHR in favor of the applicantswhich for the first time instructed the Greek authorities to immediately remove the unaccompanied minors from the detention facility and place them in an accommodation shelter, leading the way for the subsequent interim measures decisions against Greece for unaccompanied minors who remained detained awaiting their placement in accommodation facility. These decisions contributed to the abolition of the practice of "protective custody" of unaccompanied minors in detention facilities.  

The decision is available in English here