The European Court of Human Rights today condemned Croatia for the death of a young Afghan woman on its border with Serbia and for the treatment of her asylum-seeking family.
The 14-member family from Afghanistan had crossed five countries to reach Croatia in 2017, more than a year after leaving Afghanistan. Its members claim that they were expelled by Croatian police officers who denied them “any possibility to apply for asylum” and ordered them to return to Serbia by train.
On the way back, a 6-year-old girl lost her life after being swept away by a train.
Croatian authorities have denied expelling the family, according to the European Court of Human Rights.
Judges convicted Zagreb of “multiple” violations of the provisions of the European Convention on Human Rights, namely the right to life, the prohibition of mass deportations of aliens and the inhuman and degrading treatment, the right to liberty and security of person;
The judges pointed out that the investigation into the death of the child was incomplete and considered the facts as reported by the family to be well-founded. Croatian authorities, according to the judges, refused to use the Croatian police’s GPS and mobile phone clues to document whether they had been in contact with the Afghan family.
Many months after her deportation, the family finally managed to enter Croatia. He was placed in a detention center for two months, where he filed applications for international protection.
In connection with this procedure, the judges of the European Court of Human Rights ruled that there was a lack of due diligence in handling these requests, bans on contact between the family and her lawyer, as well as pressure from the Croatian authorities on the lawyer.
For these violations of the Convention, Croatia was ordered to pay the Afghan family moral damages of 40,000 euros, an amount higher than the usual practice of the Court.
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