The European Court of Justice (ECJ) has declared that Poland, Hungary, and the Czech Republic violated EU law by refusing to take in refugees. According to the ruling, these countries failed to accept their share of 120,000 asylum seekers who had arrived in Italy and Greece in 2015, and did not help share the burden of migration caused by the crises in Syria and Iraq.
The Luxembourg-based court dismissed the defenses of the three member-states, which cited national security concerns as the reason for the breaches, sending a strong message that asylum seekers do not pose a threat to public security. Under a “temporary relocation mechanism”, countries were offered €6,000 per person they took in. However, the court said that the Czechs took in only 12, while Poland and Hungary accepted none.
The countries now face massive fines. However, in order to impose those, Brussels will have to now request another case with the ECJ.
Commenting on the ruling, Hungarian justice minister Judit Varga called the migrant quota “unreasonable” and not fully implemented, adding that Hungary would “continue to fight against the European mainstream, who still did not understand that supporting migration is not a good response to the problems of Europe”. Polish leadership has also previously criticized the EU’s quota system, arguing that Poland did its part in accepting hundreds of thousands of refugees from Ukraine.
Image Source: The New York Times
European Court of Justice Rules Three Countries Broke EU Law by Failing to Accept Refugees
April 3, 2020
