This case concerned two sisters from Afghanistan, who were children, and who arrived in Greece unaccompanied and were first left without shelter for a few days before being placed in “protective custody” in police facilities for several weeks pending their asylum claims. They complained that both the lack of accommodation and the poor detention conditions incompatible with their vulnerable status and age, and that their detention was unlawful and judicially unreviewable. The Court found that the applicants had been exposed to treatment in detention which exceeded the threshold of severity required to engage Article 3 due to the length of detention and the unsuitability of the detention regime, and that the use of protective custody without a lawful decision or effective remedy violated Articles 5(1) and 5(4).
Read the full decision here.