Athens, that is, the Greek authorities, proposed temporarily suspending the submission of asylum applications in emergency situations, and this idea was supported by the ministers of Germany and Austria. The issue came onto the EU ministers’ agenda after the summer influx of migrants into Ceuta.
In July, more than 70,000 migrants suddenly arrived in Ceuta, a small Spanish enclave in North Africa, and this caused chaos amid EU migration reforms aimed at protecting the bloc’s external borders.
Austria’s Interior Minister Gerhard Karner said on Thursday that if 70,000 people arrive in one day, this “obviously has nothing to do with asylum”, and the current rules are not sufficient for such a situation.
Earlier this week, EU Migration Commissioner Magnus Brunner presented plans for sudden mass arrivals at the bloc’s borders, which, he said, may be triggered and exploited by other countries. The package included strengthening the role of the Frontex border agency and a European emergency response framework, which European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen included in her State of the Union address last month.
Brunner said the EU must be able to respond quickly to such crises, and leaders will continue the discussion later this month, after which the European Commission will prepare a proposal. For now, the discussion is not focused on the specific parameters of the mechanism, and several countries have taken a wait-and-see position until the Commission’s text.
Diplomats and ministers from three other countries said they would first wait for the European Commission’s proposal before deciding on their position. They also expressed concerns that suspending the acceptance of applications could in practice lead to mass expulsions, which are prohibited by international law, although they agreed that the EU should discuss what can and cannot be done in a crisis without violating human rights.
Against this backdrop, ministers have already adopted another controversial reform that allows those denied asylum to be sent to centers outside the EU. Human rights advocates call such places “legal black holes”; Spain was the only country to vote against, Belgium abstained, and Ireland and Denmark did not take part in the vote because of a special opt-out on justice matters.
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