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Migration Jurisprudence from the South › Cyprus and Russia

Rantsev v. Cyprus and Russia

European Court of Human Rights · Cyprus and Russia · 2010-01-07 · Regional court or body

Citation: no. 25965/04
Type of case: Constitutional and human rights
Outcome: Decided for the migrant side

Question

Did Cyprus and Russia meet their duties towards a young woman recruited for cabaret work on an “artiste” visa who died soon after arriving?

What the court decided

No. Trafficking falls within Article 4; Cyprus lacked an adequate framework and failed to protect her, and Russia failed to investigate her recruitment.

In plain language

A young woman from Russia went to Cyprus on a special visa for cabaret work and died soon after. Her father took the case to the European Court. It said both countries failed her: trafficking is covered by the ban on slavery and forced labour, and states must prevent it, protect victims and investigate.

Dalam bahasa sederhana

Seorang perempuan muda dari Rusia pergi ke Siprus dengan visa khusus untuk bekerja di kabaret dan meninggal tak lama kemudian. Ayahnya membawa perkara ke Pengadilan HAM Eropa. Pengadilan menyatakan kedua negara gagal: perdagangan orang termasuk larangan perbudakan dan kerja paksa, dan negara wajib mencegah, melindungi korban dan menyelidiki.

Pertanyaan: Apakah Siprus dan Rusia memenuhi kewajiban terhadap perempuan muda yang direkrut untuk bekerja di kabaret dengan visa “artis” dan meninggal tak lama setelah tiba?

What happened afterwards

  • 2010-01-07: Violations by both states.
  • 2017-03-10: Committee of Ministers closes supervision (CM/ResDH(2017)95).

Sources

Open this decision in the interactive collection (compare, filter, Indonesian view, downloads).

Cite as: Institute for Migrant Rights (2026), Migration Jurisprudence from the South, version 0.1, https://theimr.org/court-decisions/d/rantsev-2010/. This page summarizes a court decision for research and advocacy; it is not legal advice.

For researchers

This collection of decisions is built for empirical legal scholarship and socio-legal research on migration and the rights of migrant workers, as well as for advocacy.

The coded variables support statistical analysis in law: cross-national comparison, regression and event-history designs, and law and economics questions such as how recruitment fees, wage protection and limits on changing employer affect migrant workers. The data can be downloaded for replication.

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