On 6 October 2022, the European Court of Human Rights (ECtHR) gave its ruling in the S v. France case (application no. 18207/21) concerning the removal order to Russia of a Russian national with Chechen origins. The status of refugee had been recognized to S. and his spouse but had later been revoked on grounds of the threat to national security. Referring to the Grand Chamber judgment in Khasanov and Rakhmanov v. Russia (applications nos. 28492/15 and 49975/15) the ECtHR noted that the examination must focus on the foreseeable consequences of the expulsion of the person concerned, taking into account the general situation, the personal circumstances of the applicant, as well as the information concerning the existence of a vulnerable group. Regarding the general situation of the North Caucasus, the Court had already found that even though there are serious human rights violations reported, the situation does not lead to establishing that any removal to Russia would breach Article 3 of the Convention. Additionally, the Court assessed the situation of the applicant as involved in the Chechen resistance fight and as suspected to be involved in terrorist activities. In this regard, the ECtHR found that these groups cannot be considered systematically targeted and subject to ill-treatment and proceeded to assess the risk to the applicant on an individual basis. In this regard, the Court declared that the domestic authorities failed to adequately assess the risk of ill-treatment in the event of expulsion as they did not appear to have expressly examined the fact that the applicant may present a profile corresponding to one of the categories particularly at risk. In light of these considerations, the Court concluded that there would be a violation of the procedural aspect of Article 3 of the Convention if the removal order were enforced and the applicant were to be returned to Russia in absence of an ex nunc assessment by the French authorities of the alleged risk.Based on an unofficial translation from within the EWLU team.
ECtHR S v. France: The Court found there would be a violation of Article 3 ECHR if the applicant were to be returned to Russia without an adequate ex nunc assessment of the case
