In her latest blog post for Strasbourg Observers, our research associate Isabel Kienzle, together with Jonathan Kießling, comments on the recent judgment of the European Court of Human Rights concerning pushbacks.
The ruling addresses, for the first time, a pushback from Cyprus to Lebanon and thus the practice of the island state intercepting individuals arriving by boat from Lebanon and returning them without any individual assessment of their protection needs. The post traces the Court’s careful fact-finding and analyses its interpretation of the procedural obligations arising from the principle of non-refoulement and the prohibition of collective expulsion. While the Court’s reasoning builds on its previous case law, the chosen focus on asylum seekers reveals certain inconsistencies and gives rise to criticism.
You can find the blogpost here.