For groups with particular vulnerabilities, placement in the CCAC, even
without being subjected to further restrictions on their liberty, may well
constitute a violation of Article 5 ECHR. These include elderly and disabled
people who, without the resources to pay for the bus, are unable to leave the
CCAC due to its isolated location, leaving them stuck in a highly controlled and
isolated facility. Moreover, even where placement in the CCAC does not
constitute a restriction of liberty as per Article 5 ECHR, the general setting of
restriction and securitisation must be taken into account as the foundation
on which all further restrictive measures, such as the de facto detention of
unaccompanied children (Section 3.1) mandatory quarantine detention
(Section 3.2) and detention for identification purposes (Section 3.3), are
applied.[99]
In assessing whether there has been a violation of Article 3 ECHR, it must always
be considered with the overall principle of human dignity.[100] With this in mind
and when it is considered that asylum seekers are "a particularly
underprivileged and vulnerable population in need of special protection",[101]
and that a large percentage of CCAC residents will have been subjected to
pushbacks and/or border violence, contributing to "feelings of fear, anguish and
inferiority",[102] the general conditions of the CCAC may well reach the
threshold of inhuman treatment, or at least provide a high foundation from
which further undignified treatment can cumulate to reach the Article 3
standard.[103]
[99] Stanev v Bulgaria, (GC) [2012] ECHR (App No 36760/06), the Court determined that "whether
the building was locked is not decisive": a deprivation of liberty could be found as the individual
required express permission to leave and that time spent was always subject to controls and
restrictions (para 124).
[100] ECHR, Article 15(2).
[101] M.S.S. v Belgium and Greece, (GC) [2011] ECHR (Application No 30696/09).
[102] Ireland v. the United Kingdom, Judgment of 18 January 1978.
[103]Stanev v Bulgaria, (GC) [2012] ECHR (Application No 36760/06), para 205.
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