On October 21, 2014, the European Court of Human Rights (the Court) ruled (French only) in Sharifi and Others v. Italy and Greece that Italy and Greece violated the European Convention of Human Rights (the Convention) by indiscriminately expelling foreign nationals from Italy and returning them to Greece, with the fear of subsequent deportation to their countries of origin, without providing them access to asylum procedures.  According to the press release, in regard to four of the applicants, the Court held that Greece violated Article 13 (right to an effective remedy) and Article 3 (prohibition of inhuman or regarding treatment).  It also held that Italy violated articles 13 and 3 as well as article 4 of Protocol No. 4 (prohibition of collective expulsion of aliens). The Court found that “no form of collective and indiscriminate returns could be justified . . . and it was for the State carrying out the return to ensure that the destination country offered sufficient guarantees in the application of its asylum policy to prevent the person concerned being removed to his country of origin without an assessment of the risks faced.”