European Court fined Turkey for deportation of Uzbeks

STRASBOURG – Hürriyet Daily News

Turkey has been fined over 190,000 euros by the European Court of Human Rights (ECHR) for the deportation of 19 Uzbek nationals by the Turkish authorities to Iran under “inhumane conditions.”

The ECHR fined Turkey 10,000 euros for each applicant and ruled that the state should pay 3,350 to the applicants jointly to cover costs and expenses.

The court found the country guilty of deporting 19 members of four Uzbek families from of the country in 2008, by forcing for them to walk between villages on the Iran-Turkey border for 10 days in winter conditions.

After leaving Uzbekistan and travelling through Tajikistan, Afghanistan and Pakistan, the applicants had eventually settled in Iran in 2001 and were also granted refugee status by the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR), the court said in the statement it declared its decision over the case.

In September 2007 they fled to Turkey and after living in the country for a year, they were placed in detention and deported to Iran in 2008.

One week after being forced out of Turkey, they returned to the country illegally, but were collected from their homes on 11 October 2008 and deported again later that day.

They claimed that they had been left to walk between the two countries’ border.

In addition to the inhumane treatment, the court ruled Turkey was guilty of not giving any reasons for the deprivation of their liberty, and that they had had no way of challenging the lawfulness of it.