Samenvatting

This article investigates the different approaches of the ECtHR as regards the non refoulement prohibition of Article 3 and the prohibition of collective expulsion under Article 4 of Protocol No. 4 of the Convention. In its decisions since the Hirsi Jamaa judgment, the Court increasingly seems to be less aware of the fact that effective access to asylum procedures cannot be guaranteed when standards prohibiting collective expulsions – forming the vestibule to asylum and thus non refoulement – are watered down. Ultimately, by attributing the lack of individual removal decisions and pushbacks to applicants’ own (culpable) conduct, it is argued that potential asylum seekers might be limited in their procedural guarantees under the ECHR.