Judgment of the European Court of Human Rights, Grand Chamber, 23 February 2012, Hirsi Jamaa and Others v. Italy (Application No. 27765/09)

The judgment of the European Court of Human Rights arose out of the Italian interception-and-return operation through which in 2009 three vessels carrying over 200 migrants were intercepted and the migrants were then returned to Lybia. The Court found violated Article 3 of ECHR on the prohibition of torture or inhuman or degrading treatment or punishment since the 24 applicants were at risk of inhuman or degrading treatment in Libya itself and faced a real risk of arbitrary return from Libya to their countries of origin, where there were known risks of torture or inhuman or degrading treatment or punishment. The Court condemned Italy also for the breach of the prohibition on collective expulsion ex Article 4 of Protocol 4, by affirming for the first time the extra-territorial reach of the prohibition on collective expulsion. A further violation concerned the failure by Italy to provide the applicants with an effective remedy in relation to the alleged breaches of Article 3 and of Article 4 of Protocol 4, as required by Article 13 ECHR.