European Migrant Crisis: Decision time at ECJ on Hungary’s immigration challenge

European Union’s top court, European Court of Justice will announce its verdict on whether to accept or dismiss the legal challenge brought to the court by Hungary and Slovakia, which is also backed by Poland against European Migrant Quota that was adopted in 2015.

Since 2015, millions of refugees war-torn and economically ravaged regions in the Middle East namely Syria, North Africa, and Asia have arrived in Europe, largely in Greece and Italy. More than a million have arrived in Germany alone. The arrival of refugees, who are predominantly Muslim in their faith has created socio-political tensions in the block and given to the rise of populism in Europe and anti-immigrant parties. In response to the crisis, the European Union reached an understanding with Turkey, which promised to take back millions of deported refugees and a deal was reached in 2015, which is popularly known as European Migrant Quota that aims to distribute migrants across Europe from the countries they first arrived. Despite earnest efforts from some EU leaders, there have not been much of a progress in that area and millions remain stranded in the country they first arrived namely Italy and Greece leading to more political tensions in those two countries.  

Some Eastern European countries namely Hungary, Poland, and the Czech Republic refused to take part in the quota system and accept a single refugee fearing social disturbance. Hungary and Slovakia (which accepted quota system but took in few refugees than mandated) brought the case to ECJ that will announce its ruling on the issue today, which will be released around 7:30 GMT.  It is being widely accepted that the highest court will dismiss the challenge posed by the Eastern European Countries. However, it is not clear whether these countries would accept the agreement even if the court rejected their challenge.