FIRST SECTION
DECISION
Applications nos. 53181/21 and 53566/21
I.A. and Others against Poland
and H.A and N.H. against Poland
(see appended table)
The European Court of Human Rights (First Section), sitting on 4 December 2025 as a Committee composed of:
Frédéric Krenc, President,
Davor Derenčinović,
Alain Chablais, judges,
and Viktoriya Maradudina, Acting Deputy Section Registrar,
Having regard to the above applications lodged on the various dates indicated in the appended table,
Having regard to the decision not to have the applicants’ names disclosed as specified in the appended table,
Having regard to the formal declarations accepting a friendly settlement of the cases,
Having deliberated, decides as follows:
FACTS AND PROCEDURE
The list of applicants is set out in the appended table.
The applicants in both cases as set out in the Appendix are Iraqi nationals and live in Zirndorf. They all constitute one household. The President granted the applicants’ request for their identity not to be disclosed to the public (Rule 47 § 4). They were represented before the Court by Ms M. Poszytek, a lawyer practising in Warsaw.
The Polish Government (“the Government”) were represented by their Agent, Mrs Agnieszka Kozińska-Makowska.
The applicants complained under Articles 2 and 3 alone and in conjunction with Article 13 of the Convention that the Polish authorities had ignored their requests for international protection and that, instead, they had pushed them back to the Belarusian side of the border. As the Belarusian authorities forced them back towards the Polish side, the applicants were stranded in the border forest area without access to medical aid, food, water, and shelter and in harsh weather conditions including frequent rains and low temperatures. They also raised further complaints as specified in the appended table.
The Court received the friendly-settlement declarations, signed by the parties, under which the applicants agreed to waive any further claims against Poland in respect of the facts giving rise to these applications, subject to an undertaking by the Government to pay them the amounts detailed in the appended table. These amounts will be converted into the currency of the respondent State at the rate applicable on the date of payment, and will be payable within three months from the date of notification of the Court’s decision. In the event of failure to pay these amounts within the above‑mentioned three-month period, the Government undertake to pay simple interest on them, from the expiry of that period until settlement, at a rate equal to the marginal lending rate of the European Central Bank during the default period plus three percentage points.
The payment will constitute the final resolution of the cases.
THE LAW
Having regard to the similar subject matter of the applications and to the fact that the applicants constitute one household, the Court finds it appropriate to examine their applications jointly in a single decision.
The Court takes note of the friendly settlement reached between the parties. It is satisfied that the settlement is based on respect for human rights as defined in the Convention and its Protocols and finds no reasons to justify a continued examination of the applications. In view of the above, it is appropriate to strike the applications out of the Court’s list of cases.
For these reasons, the Court, unanimously,
Decides to join the applications;
Decides to strike the applications out of its list of cases in accordance with Article 39 of the Convention.
Done in English and notified in writing on 8 January 2026.
Viktoriya Maradudina Frédéric Krenc
Acting Deputy Registrar President
APPENDIX
List of applications
No.
Application no.
Date of introduction
Applicant’s name
Year of birth
Representative’s name and location
Complaints under well-established case-law
Date of receipt of Government’s declaration
Date of receipt of Applicant’s declaration
Amount awarded for pecuniary and non-pecuniary damage and costs and expenses
per household
(in euros)[1]
53181/21
01/11/2021
(3 applicants)
I. A.
1980
A. H.
2007
F. H.
2012
Poszytek Maria
Warsaw
Art. 2 (1) - Right to life,
Art. 3 - Inhuman or degrading treatment,
Art. 5 (1) (f) - Lawful arrest/detention/for deportation/expulsion,
Art. 5 (4) - excessive length of judicial review of detention,
Art. 8 (1) - Private life,
Art. 13 - lack of any effective remedy in domestic law,
Prot. 4 Art. 4 - Prohibition of collective expulsion of aliens
10/02/2025
04/02/2025
20,000, jointly to the five applicants, who form one household
53566/21
04/11/2021
(2 applicants)
H. A.
1980
N. H.
2006
[1] Plus any tax that may be chargeable to the applicants.