FIFTH SECTION
CASE OF R.N. v. HUNGARY
(Application no. 71/18)
 
 
 
 
 
 
JUDGMENT
 
 
 
 
STRASBOURG
4 May 2023
This judgment is final but it may be subject to editorial revision. In the case of R.N. v. Hungary,
The European Court of Human Rights (Fifth Section), sitting as a Committee composed of:
 Stéphanie Mourou-Vikström, President,
 Lado Chanturia,
 Mattias Guyomar, judges,
and Sophie Piquet, Acting Deputy Section Registrar,
Having regard to:
the application (no. 71/18) against Hungary lodged with the Court under Article 34 of the Convention for the Protection of Human Rights and Fundamental Freedoms (“the Convention”) on 17 December 2017 by a Pakistani national, R.N. (“the applicant”), who was born in 2003, lives in Paris and was represented by Mr Fazekas, a lawyer practising in Budapest;
the decision to give notice of the application to the Hungarian Government (“the Government”), represented by their Agent, Mr Z. Tallódi, of the Ministry of Justice;
the decision not to have the applicant’s name disclosed;
the parties’ observations;
 
Having deliberated in private on 30 March 2023,
Delivers the following judgment, which was adopted on that date:
SUBJECT MATTER OF THE CASE
1. The case concerned the applicant’s removal from Hungary after his irregular entry. 2. The applicant is a Pakistani national who crossed the border into Hungary clandestinely on 21 June 2017. He subsequently hid in a barn where he was allegedly repeatedly physically assaulted by members of the “field guards”. On the same day he was apprehended by Hungarian police officers. He submitted a printout of a Facebook post by the mayor of Ásotthalom which included photos showing him and other migrants lying on the floor after being apprehended. Together with ten other migrants he was then taken to the border fence and made to walk in the direction of Serbia. He alleged that he and other migrants had been given no chance to claim asylum. 3. Following his removal, the applicant was, on the same day, examined in a hospital in Subotica (Serbia). A medical examination carried out two days later by a member of Médecins Sans Frontières confirmed that he had sustained a wound to his head. The applicant was at that time fourteen years old and unaccompanied. 4. On 28 July 2017 the applicant’s legal representative lodged a criminal complaint with the Hungarian prosecution service in relation to the alleged ill-treatment of the applicant. 5. The applicant complained that he had been subjected to a collective expulsion, in breach of Article 4 of Protocol No. 4 to the Convention. He also complained under Article 13 of the Convention in conjunction with Article 4 of Protocol No. 4 that he had not had any effective remedy at his disposal. In his submissions of 28 November 2022, he also raised a complaint under Article 3 of the Convention.

Outcome for Article P4-4: violation