Europe migrant crisis: EU court rejects quota challenge

by Dramelin 1:30 AM 0 comments

The EU`s top court has rejected a challenge by eastern European countries to a migrant relocation deal at the peak of the 2015 crisis.
The European Court of Justice overruled Hungary and Slovakia`s objections to the compulsory fixed-quota scheme.
Hungary has not accepted a single asylum seeker since the compulsory quotas were introduced two years ago.
They were an attempt to ease the pressure on frontline countries such as Greece and Italy.
Just under 28,000 people have been relocated under the scheme, rather than the 160,000 asylum seekers envisaged when it was agreed in September 2015.
EU officials insisted from the start that the scheme was binding on all member states regardless of whether they had voted for it or not.
Hungary, Slovakia, the Czech Republic and Romania had objected to the quotas.
`Proportionate` Taking the case to the Court of Justice, Hungary and Slovakia argued that there were procedural mistakes, and that quotas were not a suitable response to the migrant crisis.
Their case was rejected by the ECJ ruling on Wednesday.
"The Court dismisses the actions brought by Slovakia and Hungary against the provisional mechanism for the mandatory relocation of asylum seekers," it said.
"That mechanism actually contributes to enabling Greece and Italy to deal with the impact of the 2015 migration crisis and is proportionate.
" A note on terminology: The BBC uses the term migrant to refer to all people on the move who have yet to complete the legal process of claiming asylum.
This group includes people fleeing war-torn countries such as Syria, who are likely to be granted refugee status, as well as people who are seeking jobs and better lives, who governments are likely to rule are economic migrants.