Information Note on the Court’s case-law 26
January 2001
Xhavara and Others v. Italy and Albania (dec.) - 39473/98
Decision 11.1.2001 [Section IV]
Article 2
Article 2-1
Life
Responsibility of Italian and Albanian authorities in the death of Albanian illegal immigrants in a collision at sea: inadmissible
Article 35
Article 35-1
Exhaustion of domestic remedies
Examination of responsibility of Italian authorities for the deaths of Albanian illegal immigrants pending before national courts: inadmissible
In 1997, the Italian and Albanian authorities, faced with the wave of Albanian citizens immigrating illegally into Italy, took, jointly, a number of measures to discourage further Albanians from leaving. They decided to set up a naval blockade and signed an agreement authorising the Italian navy to board and search Albanian boats. The applicants, who are Albanian, were trying to enter Italy illegally when their boat, the Kater I Rades, sank following a collision with an Italian warship whose crew was attempting to board and search the vessel. The applicants were rescued, but fifty-eight people, among whom were members of their family, perished in the shipwreck. The commanding officer of the warship was prosecuted in Italy for manslaughter. He was accused of having exposed the passengers of the Albanian boat, which he had been chasing, to a risk which was disproportionate to the aim pursued, namely the protection of national security. Some of the applicants applied to join the civil proceedings as civil parties seeking damages. The officer was committed for trial in November 1998. His trial was still continuing on 21 December 2000.
Inadmissible under Article 2: the Albanian authorities could not be held liable for the measures taken by Italy in performance of the agreement reached between the two states and, in particular, the sinking of the Kater I Rades. In respect of the Italian authorities’ liability, the applicants had not adduced any evidence to show that the boat had been deliberately sunk. Furthermore, the commanding officer of the warship had been prosecuted in Italy and committed for trial. There was no reason to believe that the investigation carried out by the Italian authorities had been inefficient or biased. The applicants were also able to join the criminal proceedings as civil parties and attend the hearings. The purpose of those proceedings was precisely to establish whether the accused had exposed the passengers to a danger disproportionate to the aim pursued and thus to determine whether the measures taken to control immigration had been applied in a manner compatible with the duty to protect the right to life. Having regard to the complexity of the case and to the necessity of instructing experts, the overall length of the proceedings did not justify dispensing the applicants from the obligation to exhaust domestic remedies: non-exhaustion of domestic remedies.
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This summary by the Registry does not bind the Court.
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