5.  The applicants are Ms Zita Bistieva, who was born in 1976, and her three minor children, who were born in 2006, 2008 and 2013, respectively. The applicants live in Herne, Germany.
6.  In 2012 Ms Bistieva’s husband, M.A., and their two elder children arrived in Poland. M.A. applied for asylum for himself and his family.
7.  On 6 March 2013 the head of the Aliens Office (Szef Urzędu do Spraw Cudzoziemców) decided not to grant M.A. and his family refugee status and to expel them from Poland (decision no. PU‑420‑37001/SU/2012). That decision was upheld by the Refugee Council on 10 May 2013 (no. RdU-133-1/S/13). No appeal was lodged before the administrative court.
8.  Soon afterwards the family fled to Germany, where Ms Bistieva’s third child was born in July 2013.
9.  On 28 May 2013 the Polish authorities took over the jurisdiction over the family’s case under Council Regulation (EC) No. 343/2003 (“the Dublin II Regulation”). On 9 January 2014 Ms Bistieva and her three children were sent back to Poland.
10.  On 9 January 2014 the Słubice District Court (Sąd Rejonowy) ordered the applicants’ committal until 8 April 2014 to the family wing of a guarded centre for aliens (Strzeżony Ośrodek dla Cudzoziemców) in Kętrzyn. It was held that the applicants should be detained pending their expulsion, which had been ordered by the head of the Aliens Office (Szef Urzędu do Spraw Cudzoziemców) on 6 March 2013 and in view of the risk that they might again flee the country.
11.  The information about the guarded centre for aliens in Kętrzyn which is presented in paragraphs 12-16 below, is derived from the reports of the Helsinki Foundation for Human Rights, which resulted from their monitoring visits in 2012 and in January and February of 2014.
12.  The Kętrzyn centre was opened in 2008. At the material time, it only hosted families and unaccompanied children. In January and February 2014, 70 migrants were held there. That number included 13 men, 19 women and 38 minors. The majority of migrants in the centre were Russian nationals. The centre was surrounded with a high wall or fence with a single barbed wire on top. Kętrzyn was one of the two guarded centres in Poland which had done away with an additional barbed wire on the fence. Unlike in many other guarded centres, the one in Kętrzyn had outer but no inner bars on the windows and the windows in the day rooms (świetlica) were without any bars. Unlike in all other guarded centres, the bars allowed for windows to be opened sufficiently wide.
13.  The overall living conditions in the centre were assessed as good. Each family occupied one room which was equipped with basic furniture. They had, in principle, unlimited access to common areas in the building, which included, a dining room, a number of kitchenettes, laundry rooms and day rooms (equipped with a TV-set, board games, video games and toys, a small gym and a library (containing a large number of publications in Russian and other languages). Migrants in Kętrzyn had also access to outdoor recreational grounds for adults and children. Outdoor time was limited to one hour per day unless, a migrant participated in sport or other type of activities.
14.  Adequate medical care, including dental and psychological care, was provided in the Kętrzyn centre.
15.  The staff of that establishment had received particularly positive evaluation from its occupants. Many staff members spoke Russian, they were closely supervised by the governor, who regularly talked to the migrants. The security measures were much more relaxed than in other centres for aliens. The premises were clean and adapted to children.
16.  Education of migrant children and adults was provided on the centre’s premises by the local authorities and pedagogy students from a nearby university. The classes of Polish, mathematics and geography were run by qualified teachers and the students either received school report cards or certificates of attendance. The classes were organised every day and, in early 2014, lasted from one hour to one hour and a half. In principle, children of all school ages and different language levels were mixed. Individual programmes had, occasionally been offered to those children who had previously studied in a Polish school. A wide range of outdoor and indoor activities, and events were available. They were run by staff members dressed in civilian clothing or visitors from the local school of music.
17.  Ms Bistieva appealed, arguing that the administrative detention of herself and her children was unjustified and disregarded the fact that her husband had stayed behind in Germany, having been hospitalised when his family was sent back to Poland.
18.  On 27 January 2014 the Warmińsko-Mazurski Governor (Wojewoda) refused to order the expulsion of Ms Bistieva’s youngest child, which was sought by the head of the Świecko Border Guard (Komendant Placówki Straży Granicznej). It was held that the 2013 expulsion decision did not cover the child, who was born later in Germany and whose presence in Poland resulted from a decision of the German authorities. It followed that the child’s presence in Poland, unlike that of the rest of his family, was not illegal.
19.  On 28 January 2014 Ms Bistieva applied for refugee status for herself and her three children. She also applied for a stay of the enforcement of the 2013 expulsion decision.
20.  On 4 February 2014 the Kętrzyn District Court decided to extend the detention of all the applicants at the guarded centre for aliens until 27 April 2014. The domestic court relied on the fact that the 2013 expulsion decision was enforceable despite Ms Bistieva’s renewed asylum application and that the identification of the family members was being carried out by the Polish authorities. The applicant did not appeal against that decision.
21.  On 5 February 2014 the Gorzów Wlkp. Regional Court (Sąd Okręgowy) upheld the decision of 9 January 2014. It was held that the decision to place Ms Bistieva in administrative detention was justified because she was an illegal alien in Poland and she had crossed the German border illegally. The fact that she had minor children could not be considered as a sufficient reason for quashing the impugned decision. The guarded centre for aliens in Kętrzyn provided adequate living conditions and medical care to the family. Any inconvenience suffered by Ms Bistieva’s family was the result not of their placement at the guarded centre but rather of Ms Bistieva’s illegal immigration to Poland.
22.  On 19 February 2014 the head of the Aliens Office decided not to grant the application to stay the enforcement of the 2013 expulsion decision. It was noted that the decision covered all the applicants. The authority considered that Ms Bistieva’s new application for asylum was likely to fail as it was based on similar grounds as the one rejected in 2013. The applicant did not appeal. On 11 March 2014 the head of the Aliens Office issued a corrigendum to that decision and removed Ms Bistieva’s youngest child from its scope.
23.  It appears that on 20 February 2014 Ms Bistieva’s husband was transferred to Poland and placed in the same guarded centre as the applicants.
24.  In view of the 2013 decision, which was enforceable, on 18 April 2014 the head of the Aliens Office discontinued the applicants’ asylum proceedings (decision no. DPU-420-214/SU/2014). That decision was served on Ms Bistieva on 23 April 2014. She did not appeal.
25.  On 25 April 2014 the Kętrzyn District Court decided to extend the administrative detention of the applicants until 29 June 2014, given the discontinuation of the latest set of asylum proceedings.
26.  Ms Bistieva appealed, arguing that her youngest child was not an illegal alien and, as such, he could not be the subject of administrative detention. She also argued that her own and her other children’s placement in the guarded centre was unjustified.
27.  On 22 May 2014 Ms Bistieva lodged a new application for asylum, also asking that the enforcement of the 2013 expulsion decision be put on hold. She argued that her application was justified because on 27 January 2014 the Warmińsko-Mazurski Governor had refused to order the expulsion of her youngest child and because, in a separate set of proceedings, on 25 April 2014 the Refugee Council (Rada do Spraw Uchodźców) had granted refugee status to her father, mother and siblings.
28.  On 5 June 2014 the head of the Aliens Office decided to temporarily suspend the enforcement of the 2013 expulsion decision, until the delivery of a new decision, on the grounds that new circumstances had arisen in the case.
29.  On 6 June 2014 the Olsztyn Regional Court upheld the decision of 25 April 2014 extending Ms Bistieva’s administrative detention. It was observed that the decision to extend the measure of administrative detention was justified by the need to secure the course of the proceedings concerning the refusal of refugee status and expulsion. It was also noted that the last relevant decision had been delivered by the head of the Aliens Office on 18 April 2014 and served on Ms Bistieva within the statutory time-limit. It followed that her detention was in accordance with the law. The domestic court held that section 107 of the 2003 Aliens Act had not been breached by the fact that the youngest child had been detained along with Ms Bistieva and the rest of the family even though his own expulsion had not been authorised by the Governor. It sufficed that the mother herself was covered by the 2013 expulsion decision and that the child was in her care. Separating Ms Bistieva from any of her children would be contrary to their best interests. Lastly, the court considered, without providing detailed reasons, that the possible alternative measure, namely placing the applicants at the aliens centre in Podkowa Leśna and providing them with social care, was not called for in the circumstances of the case.
30.  On 12 June 2014 Ms Bistieva applied to be released from administrative detention.
31.  On 29 June 2014 the applicants were released. They started living in Warsaw. Later, on an unspecified date in August 2014 the applicants left for Germany. As submitted by their lawyer, they currently live in Herne.
32.  On 28 October 2014 the head of Aliens Office discontinued the applicants’ asylum proceedings on the grounds that they had not appeared for questioning (decision no. DPU-420-1114/SU/2014).
33.  The applicants did not bring an action for compensation for unjustified detention in a guarded centre under section 407 of the Aliens Act of 12 December 2013.