ECtHR, 4 April 2024, Sherov and Others v. Poland, Appl. No. 54029/17 and 3 Others

Business as Usual at the Polish Border, or the Calm Before the (New) Storm?

Résumé

On 4 April 2024, the European Court of Human Rights delivered its judgment in the case of Sherov and Others v. Poland. With this decision, the ECtHR added a new chapter (the latest thus far) into its rapidly growing jurisprudence on the summary removal of migrants and asylum seekers attempting to access the territory of the European Union through the Eastern border, and appeared to confirm a rights-affirming trend at the Eastern borders initiated in M.K. and Others in July 2020. This is something to be welcomed, particularly following the Grand Chamber judgment in N.D. and N.T. v. Spain in February 2020. However, only two weeks after delivering its judgment in Sherov, the Court relinquished to the Grand Chamber the case of C.O.C.G. and Others v. Lithuania, potentially signaling an upcoming change of direction.