[JURIST] The European Court of Justice [official website] ruled [judgment; press release, PDF] Thursday that EU nations can imprison migrants who attempt to reenter after having already been formally expelled from the nation. The case involved an Albanian migrant who returned to Italy after being expelled three years prior. The judges found that the imprisonment of the migrant was justified [AFP report] and that the jail term was proper under EU law. The decision is expected to have broad implications given the current situations of third party nationals fleeing to EU nations.

Migrant rights have become an increasingly prevalent issue as millions seek asylum from conflict nations. Recently, UN High Commissioner for Human Rights Zeid Ra’ad Al Hussein, gave the opening statement [JURIST report] at the 30th session of the Human Rights Council in which he addressed, among other pressing human rights issues, the migrant crisis. Two weeks ago, the UN’s special representative for migration urged countries worldwide to aide[JURIST report] in responding to the growing migration crisis in Europe. Last month German Chancellor Merkel urged other EU countries [JURIST report] to assist in accommodating the influx of refugees from Iraq, Syria and Afghanistan, saying that the burden cannot fall on just a few countries. Two days earlier, the Hungarian National Assembly passed a number of emergency measures [JURIST report] to address the recent mass migration into Europe.