M.S.S. v. BELGIUM AND GREECE JUDGMENT
47
– Greece (see paragraphs 163, 213, 165 and 166 respectively) and are not
explicitly disputed by the Government.
230. The Court notes that, according to the findings made by
organisations that visited the holding centre next to the airport, the sector for
asylum-seekers was rarely unlocked and the detainees had no access to the
water fountain outside and were obliged to drink water from the toilets. In
the sector for arrested persons, there were 145 detainees in a 110 sq. m
space. In a number of cells there was only 1 bed for 14 to 17 people. There
were not enough mattresses and a number of detainees were sleeping on the
bare floor. There was insufficient room for all the detainees to lie down and
sleep at the same time. Because of the overcrowding, there was a lack of
sufficient ventilation and the cells were unbearably hot. Detainees’ access to
the toilets was severely restricted and they complained that the police would
not let them out into the corridors. The police admitted that the detainees
had to urinate in plastic bottles which they emptied when they were allowed
to use the toilets. It was observed in all sectors that there was no soap or
toilet paper, that sanitary and other facilities were dirty, that the sanitary
facilities had no doors and that the detainees were deprived of outdoor
exercise.
231. The Court reiterates that it has already considered that such
conditions, which are found in other detention centres in Greece, amounted
to degrading treatment within the meaning of Article 3 of the Convention
(see paragraph 222 above). In reaching that conclusion, it took into account
the fact that the applicants were asylum-seekers.
232. The Court sees no reason to depart from that conclusion on the
basis of the Greek Government’s argument that the periods when the
applicant was kept in detention were brief. It does not regard the duration of
the two periods of detention imposed on the applicant – four days in June
2009 and a week in August 2009 – as being insignificant. In the present
case, the Court must take into account that the applicant, being an asylumseeker, was particularly vulnerable because of everything he had been
through during his migration and the traumatic experiences he was likely to
have endured previously.
233. On the contrary, in the light of the available information on the
conditions at the holding centre next to Athens International Airport, the
Court considers that the conditions of detention experienced by the
applicant were unacceptable. It considers that, taken together, the feeling of
arbitrariness and the feeling of inferiority and anxiety often associated with
it, as well as the profound effect such conditions of detention indubitably
have on a person’s dignity, constitute degrading treatment contrary to
Article 3 of the Convention. In addition, the applicant’s distress was
accentuated by the vulnerability inherent in his situation as an asylumseeker.
234. There has therefore been a violation of Article 3 of the Convention.