This case concerned seven unaccompanied minors from Afghanistan seeking international protection in Greece and accommodated at the Samos Reception and Identification Centre from four to ten months. The applicants complained that the accommodation and its surroundings were severely overcrowded, unsanitary, with limited availability of medical and psychosocial support. The applicants also complained that the capacity of the “safe zone” for unaccompanied minors was insufficient and that the guardianship system lacked effectiveness. . The Court found that, taking into account the applicants’ age and their particular vulnerability, the reception conditions to which the applicants were subjected amounted to inhuman and degrading treatment under Article 3 of the ECHR.
Read the full decision here.