Greece Urges EU to Allow Temporary Asylum Suspension During Migration Surges

Greece has called on the European Union to allow member states to temporarily suspend asylum applications during periods of mass migration, placing emergency border controls at the centre of debate among EU interior ministers.

The proposal was presented at a Justice and Home Affairs Council meeting in Luxembourg on Thursday. Greece argued that existing EU rules and the bloc’s migration pact do not provide sufficient tools for handling sudden, large-scale arrivals.

Greek Migration Minister Thanos Plevris said the pact, which took effect in June, had strengthened the EU’s ability to manage migration flows but did not go far enough. Ahead of the meeting, he said that in cases of mass arrivals there should be “enhanced border surveillance and suspension of asylum”.

Disagreement over how to handle mass arrivals

The Greek proposal appeared to receive backing from some member states, although the countries supporting it were not identified. Dutch Migration Minister Bart van den Brink also endorsed the approach, saying arrivals on the scale seen in Ceuta should be “treated as a border management issue rather than an asylum issue”.

Spain estimates that more than 72,000 migrants entered Ceuta in late July. About 10,000 remained after most of those who arrived had returned, according to the source report.

The figures were cited as an example of the kind of pressure that some governments say requires an emergency response. Irregular arrivals were reported to be down 35 percent this year, while returns increased by about 8 percent during the first half of the year. The source did not identify the institution responsible for those figures.

Commission stresses legal obligations

EU Migration Commissioner Magnus Brunner said the bloc needed the ability to protect its external borders, but stressed that any response would have to remain consistent with international law and fundamental rights.

“Europe needs the means to protect its borders at all times,” Brunner said. He added that when movements are “engineered and weaponised against us”, the issue becomes one of security as well as migration, while insisting that Europe would continue to comply with fundamental rights and values.

European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen had announced two weeks earlier that the Commission would present an emergency framework to help member states respond to sudden, large-scale arrivals. It was not stated whether Greece’s proposed suspension had been approved.

Return hubs also approved

EU ministers separately approved a new return regulation allowing member states to establish return hubs outside the European Union. The full legal text and implementation details were not provided in the source report.

Officials from Greece, the Netherlands, Germany, Austria and Denmark also met on the sidelines of the council as the “Group of Five”. The group aims to identify a potential host country for a return hub by the end of the year, with transfers planned to begin in 2027, according to van den Brink.

Two unnamed European Parliament politicians said Rwanda had held preliminary discussions with some EU countries about hosting a return facility. The source did not confirm that Rwanda would become the host country, and it did not identify the country visited by a technical mission in early September.

The debate comes amid continuing political pressure in Europe for stricter controls, returns and deterrence measures. Anti-immigration sentiment has remained influential since more than one million people arrived in the EU in 2015, many of them Syrians fleeing war.