HAMMER BLOW FOR EU: Victory for Austria as Euro court in shock migrant ruling
EUROPE’S top court this morning threw a spanner in the works of Brussels attempts to resolve the migrant crisis by ruling that member states have the power to deport asylum seekers back to the first EU country they entered.
By NICK GUTTERIDGE, BRUSSELS CORRESPONDENT
Express.co.uk
Wed, Jul 26, 2017
In an eagerly awaited ruling judges at the ECJ confirmed that Austria and Slovenia can send migrants back to Croatia to have their asylum cases determined there instead.
The case came before the court after Croatian authorities infuriated their neighbours at the height of the 2015 crisis by laying on state-funded transport to help migrants cross their territory.
Officials in Zagreb had argued that they were dealing with an unprecedented situation as hundreds of thousands of migrants moved northwards towards Germany, and that this exempted them from the need to process visas.
But Austria and Slovenia, where some of the asylum seekers ended up, brought legal proceedings saying that Croatia had a duty to decide on asylum cases, and not simply bus people northwards, under the Dublin Convention.
The landmark EU migration law, first agreed in 1990, specifically states that it is the responsibility of the first EU member state a migrant enters to determine their case.
Today’s ruling could have a significant impact on the future of the EU’s rapidly sinking migrant quota scheme, under which all countries have been allocated a mandatory number of refugees to take in from Greece and Italy.
Both of the countries bringing the lawsuit have strongly opposed the enforced system and refused to take part, drawing a furious response from Rome which is struggling to cope with huge numbers of new arrivals.
And whilst today’s case was focussed on Croatia, the ruling theoretically strips Italy and Greece of similar legal arguments against having to take migrants back under the Dublin system.
The specifics of the case focus on one Syrian national, who applied for asylum in Slovenia, and two Afghan family members who travelled to Austria – all after being helped to transit through Croatia.
In both instances the two countries’ national courts ruled that the trio should be returned to Croatia to apply for asylum there – prompting a legal challenge from the individuals which ended up at the ECJ.
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