The Council of Europe’s Committee of Ministers examined again this week the execution of the Ilias and Ahmed and Shahzad judgments of the European Court of Human Rights. These groups of several cases concern access to asylum in Hungary and collective expulsions of asylum-seekers to Serbia.
In Ilias and Ahmed the authorities failed to assess the risks of ill-treatment before expelling the asylum-seeking applicants to Serbia which was considered a “safe third country”. The Committee called on the authorities thoroughly to examine, before the removal of any asylum-seeker from Hungary to Serbia, whether they would have access to an adequate asylum procedure in Serbia and if the principle of non-refoulement is respected.
In Shahzad the European Court found a violation on account of the asylum-seeking applicant’s collective expulsion by applying the so-called “apprehension and escort” measure (introduced by the State Borders Act) and the lack of an effective remedy in respect of the applicant's removal. The Committee strongly exhorted the authorities to intensify their efforts in reforming the asylum system to afford effective access to means of legal entry, in particular border procedures. It reiterated its utmost concern that collective expulsions reportedly continue and strongly exhorted the authorities to terminate the practice of removing asylum-seekers to Serbia without their identification or an examination of their individual situation.
The Committee invited the member States to raise, through all appropriate means, in their contacts with the Hungarian authorities the issue of the implementation of the judgments in the Ilias and Ahmed and Shahzad groups. This is a relatively rare step taken by the Committee of Ministers in only a handful of cases to date.
The Committee also invited the Hungarian authorities to submit updated action plans in both groups, including information on all the above issues, by 30 June 2025. It decided to resume its examination of these groups by September 2025.
Decision of the Committee of Ministers
