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How long can authorities keep someone detained while deciding whether he can stay in the country?
For a Moroccan asylum seeker held at Menogeia for roughly 13½ months, the European Court of Human Rights has ruled that Cyprus went too far.
In its Oct. 1 judgment, the court found that his detention violated his right to liberty and awarded him €5,000 in damages, plus legal costs. But it rejected his separate complaint that he had been denied a fair opportunity to challenge his detention.
The man, identified only as K.A., entered the Republic through the occupied areas in 2019. He was detained from Jan. 10 that year until Feb. 24, 2020, after authorities cited national security concerns.
Security concerns did not settle the question
The court found that different authorities had given different explanations for keeping him detained. Some treated national security as a reason in its own right; others tied his detention to the ongoing decision on his asylum application.
Meanwhile, the information supporting the security suspicions remained unchanged. The judges found that the detention was not sufficiently connected to the immigration purpose relied upon to justify it.
After he challenged the asylum decision in court, there was no substantial progress in examining his case. His detention ultimately lasted longer than was reasonably necessary.
The judges also made a practical point: reaching a prompt decision would have served both the man seeking protection and the state claiming he posed a security risk.
The court accepted safeguards around confidential evidence
K.A. also argued that withholding sensitive information had prevented him from properly challenging the case against him.
On that issue, the European court sided with Cyprus. He knew the main reasons for his detention, had access to much of his file, and was represented by a lawyer. The Administrative Court could examine all the confidential material and assess whether keeping it secret was justified. Those safeguards gave him a reasonable opportunity to argue his case.
For Cyprus, the ruling illustrates the responsibility that comes with immigration detention: authorities must explain why someone remains locked up and move the underlying case forward.
