M.S.S. v. RUSSIA
Inadmissible
Alena Poláčková;Branko Lubarda;Dmitry Dedov;Georgios A. Serghides;Helena Jäderblom;Luis López Guerra;Pere Pastor Vilanova
1. The applicant, M.S.S., is an Uzbek national. He was represented before the Court by Ms I. Sokolova, a lawyer practising in Ivanovo. 2. The Russian Government (“the Government”) were represented by Mr G. Matyushkin, Representative of the Russian Federation to the European Court of Human Rights. 3. The facts of the case, as submitted by the parties, may be summarised as follows. 4. The applicant arrived in Russia in June 2012. 5. On 16 August 2012 he was charged in absentia in Uzbekistan with the unlawful organisation of an extremist religious group. On 24 August 2012 the Yakkasaray District Court in Tashkent ordered his arrest. 6. Between 2012 and 2014 the applicant stayed in Russia lawfully on the basis of his registration as a migrant and a renewable work permit. During that period he did not apply for refugee status or for temporary asylum or for a temporary residence permit. 7. In 2014 the applicant’s family (wife and three children) arrived from Uzbekistan to join him. 8. On 30 June 2014 the applicant was arrested in Russia on the basis of an international search warrant. On the same day the Ministry of the Interior of Uzbekistan informed the Russian authorities that it was intended to seek the applicant’s extradition and requested his detention pending such extradition. 9. On 2 July 2014 the Oktyabrskiy District Court of Ivanovo remanded the applicant in custody pending extradition. On 7 July 2014 the applicant was released on the orders of the Oktyabrskiy District Prosecutor, since under current Russian legislation his criminal prosecution had become timebarred, thus rendering extradition impossible. 10. It remains unclear whether the Uzbekistani authorities have submitted an official request for the applicant’s extradition. 11. On 8 July 2014 the applicant applied for refugee status in Russia. On 14 October 2014 the Ivanovo Regional Department of the Federal Migration Service (the “Ivanovo Regional FMS”) refused to grant his request, stating that the applicant’s allegation that he would run the risk of ill-treatment in Uzbekistan had not been “objectively confirmed”. 12. On 15 October 2014 the applicant was informed by the Ivanovo Regional FMS that “a person having exhausted all the instances of appeal ... and refusing voluntary departure from Russia within three days of the date of receipt of the [final] decision will be administratively expelled or deported”. 13. On 14 November 2014 the applicant appealed to the Federal Migration Service of the Russian Federation (the “FMS of Russia”) against the refusal to grant refugee status. On 23 December 2014 the appeal was rejected. 14. On 16 March 2015 the Oktyabrskiy District Court of Ivanovo upheld the refusal to grant refugee status. 15. The applicant lodged an appeal, but asked the court to grant him deferral of payment of the court fee (150 Russian roubles (RUB), or approximately 3 euros (EUR)). The court deferred payment until 6 May 2015 and adjourned examination of the appeal. The applicant contested this decision, asking for an extension of the deferral period. His request was dismissed and the appeal was left unexamined, since the court fees remained unpaid. 16. The judgment of 16 March 2015 became final on 27 May 2015. 17. On 15 October 2014 the applicant applied for temporary asylum in Russia, referring to the risk of ill-treatment in Uzbekistan. On 15 January 2015 the Ivanovo Regional FMS refused his request. 18. On 5 February 2015 the applicant unsuccessfully lodged an appeal with the FMS of Russia against the refusal. 19. On 20 April 2015 the Oktyabrskiy District Court of Ivanovo upheld the refusal to grant temporary asylum. 20. The applicant again lodged an appeal, but asked the court to grant him deferral of the payment of the court fee (RUB 150, or approximately EUR 3). The court deferred payment until 29 May 2015 and adjourned examination of the appeal. The applicant contested this decision, asking for an extension of the deferral period. His request was dismissed and the appeal was left unexamined, since the court fees remained unpaid. 21. The judgment of 20 April 2015 became final on 22 June 2015. 22. On 6 July 2015 the applicant requested that the Court apply Rule 39 of the Rules of Court to prevent his removal to Uzbekistan. He claimed that he could be deported to Uzbekistan at any moment since the refusals to grant refugee status and temporary asylum had become final, and an appeal against a deportation decision did not have a suspensive effect. 23. On 7 July 2015 the Court granted the applicant’s request and indicated to the Government that the applicant should not be deported or expelled to Uzbekistan for the duration of the proceedings before the Court. 24. In order to regularise his status in Russia, on 24 August 2015 the applicant applied to the Ivanovo Regional FMS for migration registration, a work permit and a temporary residence permit. 25. In a letter of 25 September 2015 the Ivanovo Regional FMS informed the applicant that he was not entitled to apply for a work permit and a temporary residence permit because his stay in Russia was illegal. It also confirmed that the applicant would not be removed from Russia as long as the interim measures indicated by the Court continued to apply. 26. At the same time, the Ivanovo Regional FMS informed the applicant that he could be put on the migration register for 90 days in order to legalise his stay in Russia and informed him how to go about registration. 27. The applicant has not informed the Court whether he has followed the migration registration procedure. 28. No decision on the applicant’s expulsion or deportation has been taken so far by the Russian authorities. 29. A summary of the relevant domestic law, as well as information concerning the human rights situation in Uzbekistan, was provided in the case of Akram Karimov v. Russia (no. 62892/12, §§ 69-111, 28 May 2014).