Reception of refugees: Poland, Hungary and the Czech Republic have violated EU law

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The three eastern countries did not respect European Union law by refusing to accept in 2015 relocated asylum seekers from other European countries, European justice estimated on Thursday.

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Poland and Hungary have not received any refugees, the Czech Republic only receiving a dozen before withdrawing from the program. Warsaw and Budapest considered that they had the right to avoid their obligations by virtue of their responsibility for " maintaining public order " and " safeguarding internal security ".

Seizure in 2017 by the European Commission, which noted that these three countries had refused their quotas for the reception of refugees decided under the program of distribution by member state of tens of thousands of asylum seekers from Italy and Greece , the Court of Justice of the EU (CJEU), does not understand it thus.

Breach of their obligations

In a judgment delivered on Thursday, it considers that Poland, Hungary and the Czech Republic have " failed to fulfill their obligations " by not respecting the decision taken collectively by the EU to welcome a quota of refugees, paving the way for possible monetary penalties. The Court considers that these three countries “ cannot invoke either their responsibilities for maintaining public order and safeguarding internal security, or the alleged malfunction of the relocation mechanism, to avoid the implementation of this mechanism ”.

For the argument of " maintaining public order " to be admissible, the two countries should have "been able to prove the need to resort to (this) derogation". For this, the " authorities had to rely, after a case-by-case examination, on concordant, objective and precise elements, making it possible to suspect that the applicant in question represents a current or potential danger ". The Court held that the decision taken by Warsaw and Budapest was " general " in character and did not rely on any " direct connection with an individual case ". For its part, Prague argued that the device was not effective in justifying not to apply it. A " unilateral assessment " which cannot be used as an argument for not applying an EU decision, the Court stressed.

Finally, 12,706 people had been relocated from Italy and 21,199 from Greece to the other Member States, ie " almost all the people who met the criteria ".

( with AFP )

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• International Migration
• Hungary
• Poland
• Czech republic
• European Union
• Refugees
• Justice

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