EU court: Illegal migrants cannot be jailed

BELGRADE - EU countries cannot imprison illegal migrants just for crossing borders inside the passport-free Schengen area, the bloc's top court ruled Tuesday, in a new blow to efforts to crack down on the migration crisis.

The European Court of Justice (ECJ) in Luxembourg said that European Union rules prevent the jailing of non-EU migrants who have illegally crossed a frontier if they have not already been subject to deportation procedures, EurActiv.com reports.

The ruling came in the case of a Ghanaian woman, Selina Affum, who was caught by French police at the Channel Tunnel while on a bus from Belgium to Britain using someone else's passport.

French police placed her in custody for illegal entry to France, and then asked Belgium to readmit her.

The EU court, ruling on Affum's appeal against her detention, said that it was against the EU's "return...