Episode 22: Why MSS is so important

Episode 21 explained what happened in the case of MSS, but we still need to discuss why the case is so important.

[podcast]https://blogs.brighton.ac.uk/humanrights/files/2015/06/hrm22_why_mss_is_so_important-27bti8j.mp3[/podcast]

(If you have problems with the embedded player use this link to listen).

One point is that it triggered a revision of the so-called ‘Dublin regulation’.

Another is that migrants often lose at Strasbourg because they cannot prove their allegations. MSS could not prove that he had personally suffered from the situation in Greece generally denounced by NGOs either. Still, the Court accepted his allegations.

Also, the Court was persuaded to overturn its own case law. Until then, the lead case of KRS v. the United Kingdom had meant that a transfer to Greece was never considered to entail a violation of the Convention. In a sense, MSS should have been declared inadmissible. However, the Court sided not with the states but with the applicant and civil society.

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