Europe – Migrants – EU – Germany – Court
The EU’s top court ruled on Tuesday that Germany has the right to require some types of migrants to live in specific locations if to do so helps social integration.
The case involved two Syrians who travelled to Germany in 1998 and 2001 respectively and were granted subsidiary protection status — one step down from qualifying as refugees.
German authorities imposed residence conditions on them but the pair challenged the decision in Germany’s Federal Administrative Court, which referred it to the European Court of Justice.
“The (EU) Directive does not prevent beneficiaries of subsidiary protection status from being subject to a residence condition for the purpose of promoting their integration, even if that condition does not apply to other non-EU citizens legally resident in Germany,” the court ruled.
The ECJ said that European Union laws meant that normally people in their position should be able to move freely in the country that granted them protective status and choose their place of residence, the same as any other non-EU national.
It ruled that EU states could not tell people where to live in order to balance the distribution of social benefits.
But it said it was up to the German court to decide if national authorities could impose restrictions if they judged that people with subsidiary protection status “face greater difficulties relating to integration than other non-EU citizens legally resident in Germany,” AFP reported.
S/SH 11
string(2636) "[{"id":"1789259","sort":"3503647","contenttypeid":"21","pic":"/2016/02/14/alalam_635910545412812632_25f_4x3.jpg","title":"Germany Isolated as EU Partners Slam Door on Refugees"} ,{"id":"1790352","sort":"3503648","contenttypeid":"21","pic":"/2016/02/17/alalam_635913247191646415_25f_4x3.jpg","title":"Belgium Police Mark Migrants with Indelible Ink"} ,{"id":"1792351","sort":"3503649","contenttypeid":"21","pic":"/2016/02/23/alalam_635918372329185512_25f_4x3.jpg","title":"Germany Criticizes ‘Shameful’ Attacks on Migrants in Saxony"} ,{"id":"1792368","sort":"3503650","contenttypeid":"21","pic":"/2016/02/23/alalam_635918406460830420_25f_4x3.jpg","title":"Thousands of Migrants Stuck in Greece as Macedonia Limits Entry"} ,{"id":"1792399","sort":"3503651","contenttypeid":"21","pic":"/2016/02/23/alalam_635918476919383862_25f_4x3.jpg","title":"IOM: Migrants Flow to Europe Surpasses 110,000 in 2016"} ,{"id":"1792620","sort":"3503652","contenttypeid":"21","pic":"/2016/02/24/alalam_635919155189813410_25f_4x3.jpg","title":"Amnesty International Slams Europe ‘Shameful’ Response to Migrants"} ,{"id":"1792754","sort":"3503653","contenttypeid":"21","pic":"/2016/02/24/alalam_635919395390184009_25f_4x3.jpg","title":"Reducing Migrants ‘Question of Survival for EU’: Austria"} ,{"id":"1792766","sort":"3503654","contenttypeid":"21","pic":"/2016/02/24/alalam_635919423393674078_25f_4x3.mp4","title":"VIDEO: About 200,000 Migrants Stranded in Greece as Bottleneck Grows"} ,{"id":"1792995","sort":"3503655","contenttypeid":"21","pic":"/2016/02/25/alalam_635920110823021744_25f_4x3.jpg","title":"VIDEO, Warning for New Influx to Europe: 1 Million Migrants Are on the Way"} ,{"id":"1793327","sort":"3503656","contenttypeid":"21","pic":"/2016/02/26/alalam_635920943612543629_25f_4x3.jpg","title":"PICTURED, Desperate Refugees Try to Hang Themselves in Athens Square"} ,{"id":"1793894","sort":"3503657","contenttypeid":"21","pic":"/2016/02/28/alalam_635922639935014324_25f_4x3.jpg","title":"Greece Says up to 70,000 Migrants May Be ‘Trapped’ Next Month"} ,{"id":"1794158","sort":"3503658","contenttypeid":"21","pic":"/2016/02/29/alalam_635923387192498705_25f_4x3.jpg","title":"PICS & VIDEO: 22,000 Migrants Left Stranded in Greece, Nowhere to Go"} ,{"id":"1794234","sort":"3503659","contenttypeid":"21","pic":"/2016/02/29/alalam_635923570595549325_25f_4x3.jpg","title":"VIDEO: Miserable Condition of Life for Refugees in Capital of Iraqi Kurdistan"} ,{"id":"1794534","sort":"3503660","contenttypeid":"21","pic":"/2016/03/01/alalam_635924476933978220_25f_4x3.jpg","title":"Over 131,000 Refugees Reached Europe by Sea in 2016: UN"} ]"