STA, 20 August 2020 - In a landmark ruling for the rights of migrants entering Slovenia, the Supreme Court has reportedly overturned an Administrative Court ruling that allowed for no return of migrants to Croatia without a formal decision. The Supreme Court argues this is allowed under an agreement on fast-track returns signed by Slovenia and Croatia in 2006.
Deciding in a case of a Moroccan migrant, the Administrative Court had ruled fast-track returns based on an inter-state agreement but without an issued decision and thus a chance for appeal violated European and Slovenian legislation and constitutionally secured rights, Dnevnik reported on Thursday.
The Supreme Court, ruling in favour of an appeal filed by the Interior Ministry, disagreed, the paper said, adding that what is the first ruling pertaining to the 2006 Slovenia-Croatia agreement has been welcomed by the ministry and police.
They told Dnevnik the Supreme Court had ruled the agreement did not breach EU law, nor had it established human rights violations.
The paper adds that legal rules envisage that such a decision be issued by Croatia, but Croatia fails to do so, instead pushing back the migrants to Bosnia-Herzegovina.
The Taskforce for Asylum, an activist group, responded by saying that Slovenian police obviously did not need to check how Croatian police acted once the migrants were returned and by announcing a challenge at the Constitutional Court
The Office of the Human Rights Ombudsman told Dnevnik that the Supreme Court ruling did not yet establish a "case law", pointing out that the Administrative Court has also ruled that a migrant from Cameroon - who had been subjected to a similar expulsion and ended up in Bosnia - be returned to Slovenia, be allowed to seek asylum and receive damages.
Blaž Kovač of Amnesty International Slovenije meanwhile expressed his conviction that Slovenia's involvement in chain refoulement made it co-responsible for the Croatian police's treatment of refugees and for the inhumane accommodation conditions they are subjected to in Bosnia.
