Poland-backed refugee quota complaints rejected by top EU court

The Luxembourg-based Court of Justice of the European Union upheld Brussels’ right to force bloc members to resettle a quota of refugees under a 2015 decision to help relieve pressure on Italy and Greece amid a migration crisis in Europe.

The European Union decision to relocate a total of 120,000 of the roughly one million people who had arrived in Europe’s south, mainly from Syria, by September 2017, was backed by most of the bloc’s countries, including Poland's previous government.

But less than 20 percent of that target has been achieved. No refugees have been accepted by Hungary or Poland, which saw the conservative Law and Justice party take power after October 2015 elections.

The European Union has launched cases against Poland and Hungary as well as the Czech Republic and Slovakia – the latter two have only taken in about a dozen migrants under the 2015 plan.

Warsaw has said such migrants pose risks to security, adding that it would not back the forcible movement of people, and that the refugees did not want to be settled in Poland.

Instead, Poland offered to provide aid to refugees and to help rebuild hospitals in the Middle East.

Warsaw has slammed the relocation programme each time Europe was hit with a major Islamic terrorist attack. (vb/pk)

Source: PAP