EHRM: 14dagen kinderdetentie in Frankrijk is schending 3EVRM

The case concerned a Georgian family, including an eight-year-old child, whose asylum application in France was rejected and who were thus issued a removal order and held in detention for 14 days. The applicants complained about their detention and the failure to respond to the interim measure against the detention.

The Court firstly referred to its jurisprudence including A.B. and others to emphasise that the particularly vulnerable situation of the minor child is decisive and takes precedence over the parent’s status as illegally staying aliens. It furthermore noted that the relevant criteria were the age of the child, the reception conditions and the duration of the detention. In this assessment, the Court noted the vulnerable position of the child as an eight-year-old, the psychological impact of the accumulation of deprivation of liberty and reported issues with the centre such as noise pollution and its widespread security as a result of being situation beside a prison. The Court referred to A.M. and others in which a violation of Article 3 was found for a detention period of seven days and determined that the authorities did not sufficiently take the applicant’s presence and status as a minor into account. Regarding the parent applicants, the Court acknowledged that the administrative detention with their minor child could have created feelings of helplessness, anguish and frustration but did nevertheless not meet the threshold of severity required to amount to a violation of Article 3.

Turning to the applicant’s complaints under Article 34, the Court determined that it was necessary to ascertain whether France’s refusal to enforce the interim measure was justified by exceptional circumstances which caused an objective obstacle which prevented France from complying with the measure. It concluded that France had not justified any exceptional circumstances and therefore held that there had been a violation of Article 34 in respect of all applicants and a violation of Article 3 in respect of the minor applicant.

EHRM (Requête no 49775/20) N.B. and others v. France, 31.3.22
https://hudoc.echr.coe.int/eng?i=001-216534