European Court of Human Rights
25 June 1996
Facts
The applicants were four Somali nationals, brothers and sister, who arrived at Paris-Orly Airport from Syria on 9 March 1992. They asserted that they had fled Somalia because their lives were in danger. The border police refused to admit them to French territory, on the ground that their passports had been falsified, and held them at the Hôtel Arcade, which had been converted for use as a waiting area for the airport. The applicants asked the French asylum authority to grant them refugee status, but the asylum authority ruled that it lacked jurisdiction because the applicants had not obtained a temporary residence permit. On 29 March 1992, the applicants were sent back to Syria.
Complaint
The applicants argued that holding them in the transit zone at Paris-Orly Airport constituted deprivation of liberty in violation of Article 5 (1) f) of the Convention.
Court’s ruling
The Court first found that holding the applicants in the transit zone of Paris-Orly Airport was equivalent to deprivation of liberty. The Court did not agree with the Government’s argument that that there was no deprivation of liberty because the applicants could have voluntarily returned to Syria. The Court also noted that even though the applicants were not “in France”, holding them in the international zone of Paris-Orly Airport made them subject to French law. The applicants asserted that their detention had no legal basis, they had found themselves in a legal vacuum in which they had neither access to a lawyer nor information about exactly where they stood at the time. The Court agreed that there were no laws that would have allowed courts to review the conditions the applicants were held in or the length of time they were held. The Court found that the French legal rules in force at the time did not sufficiently guarantee the applicants’ right to liberty and found a breach of Article 5.