2.7. Ill-treatment 2.9. Bypassing the Dublin Procedure Many persons who arrived at the port of Ancona and were later on interviewed by the team, reported that they had been ill-treated by the Italian authorities during the readmission procedure. Among the alleged victims of violence, there were also unaccompanied minors. They described being pulled by the officers, slapped, punched and kicked in the police station where they were taken in order to be fingerprinted, on their way back to the ship and/or inside the provisional detention places of the ship. Dublin II obliges the responsible Member State to “examine the application of any third country national who applies at the border or in their territory” following the determination of responsibility through application of the Regulation’s criteria. One unaccompanied minor told us, that the Italian authorities on board of the ship beat him, then forced him to run in circles around himself and finally ordered him to take of his clothes. Then the officers pulled his boxer shorts up to his belly and forced him to run in circles around himself again. According to the ECHtR (Grand Chamber) ruling MSS v. Greece and Belgium, every state member is obliged to verify if the country of return complies, in practice, with its obligations in asylum matters.31 Belgium was convicted by ECHtR for violation of article 3 and 13 (return to a country which lacks of an effective asylum system in practice), article 3 (exposure to degrading detention and living conditions) and article 3 (lack an effective remedy against arbitrary removal) in the case of an Afghan asylum seeker, who was returned by the Belgian authorities back to Greece. 2.8. Detention conditions on board In Nsv. SSHD and ME v. ORAC the CJEU held that the Member States could not transfer individuals to another EU Member State, where the asylum seeker In almost all of the cases, the ship companies could face violation of the articel 4 of the European provide for a cabin used as a temporary detention Charter of Fundamental Rights (prohibition of cell for those to be readmitted. In other cases torture).32 It noted, that the member states cannot people are kept in metal storage rooms, subjected be “unaware” of the systemic deficiencies in the to extreme weather conditions during winter and asylum procedure and the reception conditions in summer. These rooms were described to us as Greece and thus Ireland and UK are obliged not to dirty and inappropriate. On one ship, where those return asylum seekers in Greece, but examine their apprehended are kept in a storage room of the claims. garage, an NGO member confirmed to us that this place is so filthy that you cannot even approach it. The readmitted persons are not always offered food and water or have access the toilet. In most After the above-mentioned decisions a number of the cases, they were given a sandwich and a of member states - among them Italy - halted bottle of water. In some rare cases orange juice returning asylum seekers to Greece. was given to them. When detained in a ship cabin, they usually have to drink water from the toilet. Sometimes they had to urinate in plastic bottles. According to official statistics provided by the In one case, while waiting to be deported, they Greek Ministry of Citizen Protection and Public were locked up on board for more than two days 31 M.S.S. v. Belgium and Greece, Application no. before the ship’s departure, without being able to 30696/09, Council of Europe: European Court of Human Rights, 21 contact anyone (no lawyers, no NGOs, etc) during January 2011, available at: http://www.unhcr.org/refworld/ docid/4d39bc7f2.html that time. 32 In Nsv. SSHD and ME v. ORAC the CJEU http://www. airecentre.org/news.php/35/press-release-n.s.-v-secretary-of-statefor-the-home-department-case-c-41110-and-m.e.-others-v-orac- 13