Expulsion to Algeria in presence of a real and serious risk of ill-treatment: M.A. v France
/M.A. v France (Application No 9373/15)
Briefed on 3rd March 2022
The M.A. case concerns the enforcement on 20 February 2015 of a removal order against the applicant, an Algerian national, who was sentenced in 2006 in France to seven years’ imprisonment and to permanent exclusion from French territory for terrorism-related acts.
The Court found in this case a violation of Article 3. In particular with regard to the applicant’s profile, who was not merely suspected of having links with terrorism but had actually been convicted in France for serious acts of which the Algerian authorities were aware, the Court considered that at the time of his removal to Algeria in February 2015 there was, in view of reliable sources of information, a genuine and serious risk that, if detained, he would be exposed to treatment contrary to that provision (§§ 54, 55 and 58).
Under Article 46, the Court considered that it was for the French Government to take all possible steps to obtain from the Algerian authorities a concrete and specific assurance that the applicant had not been and would not be subjected to treatment contrary to Article 3 of the Convention (§ 91).
The case was briefed by Paul Chiron, Legal and Action Support Officer at la Cimade.