BRUSSELS (AP) – Europe’s top court has ruled that European Union member states aren’t obliged to grant humanitarian visas to people who want to enter their territory to apply for asylum.
The decision announced Tuesday came after a Belgian court in October ordered the government to give humanitarian visas to a family in war-torn Syria.
The European Court of Justice ruled that allowing people to choose where to get international protection would undermine the EU system establishing which country should handle asylum applications.
It said that EU law only lays out the procedures and conditions for issuing visas to transit through or stay on the territory of a member state for up to 90 days.
But the Luxembourg-based court said member state courts remain free to rule on visas under national law.