Switzerland has been condemned by the European Court of Human Rights in a case involving asylum rights.

The Court unanimously found that the separation of two pairs of asylum seekers from Ethiopia breached Article eight of the Convention.

Switzerland will pay the plaintiffs approximately 12,000 euros in moral damages and costs.

The Ethiopian applicants, who applied for asylum in 1994 and 1998, had been directed to the cantons of Bern and St Gallen, while their companions were in  canton Vaud.

In 2003 and 2004, the two women had married their partners, but the Federal Office for Migration didn’t give them permission to live in Vaud until 2008.