Łysienia, Maja

Dzieci w strzeżonych ośrodkach dla cudzoziemców – orzecznictwo Europejskiego Trybunału Praw Człowieka a polskie prawo i praktyka
2024

Every year, several hundred children are deprived of their liberty in the Polish guarded centres for foreigners. Meanwhile, international organizations are increasingly arguing that the immigration detention of minors should be prohibited due to its harmful impact on the health and development of the child. Taking into account these calls, the European Court of Human Rights (ECtHR) rigorously approaches the deprivation of liberty of minor third-country nationals – even if they are accompanied by their parents. Already in five judgments, the ECtHR found that Poland had violated the European Convention on Human Rights (ECHR) in this respect. The aim of this article is to, first of all,determine the requirements arising from the ECtHR’s case law regarding the immigration detention of children, and secondly, to assess the compliance of Polish law and practice with these standards. Accordingly, a comprehensive analysis of the Court’s judgments was carried out (with a particular focus on cases concerning Poland), which was followed by an in-depth study of the respective national law and practice. The conducted research led to the conclusion that many changes are still necessary to ensure the compliance of Polish law and practice with the standards arising from Article 3, 5 and 8 ECHR regarding the deprivation of liberty of minor third-country nationals.