Greece seeks EU asylum suspension amid mass migration

Greece has urged the European Union to allow member states to temporarily suspend asylum applications during periods of mass migration, arguing that current rules cannot handle emergencies such as the surge in Spain’s North African enclave of Ceuta this summer.

The proposal was submitted to EU interior ministers meeting in Luxembourg on Thursday during the Justice and Home Affairs Council, and appeared to draw support from some member states.

Greek Migration Minister Thanos Plevris said the EU’s migration pact, which took effect in June, had improved the bloc’s ability to manage migration flows but had not gone far enough.

“In such cases, there should be enhanced border surveillance and suspension of asylum,” he told reporters ahead of the meeting.

Dutch Migration Minister Bart van den Brink backed the approach, saying mass arrivals like those in Ceuta should be “treated as a border management issue rather than an asylum issue”.

Spain estimates more than 72,000 migrants entered Ceuta in late July. While most have since returned, about 10,000 remain, reinforcing calls in some European capitals for a tougher approach.

Anti-immigration sentiment has remained a potent political force across Europe since more than a million people, many of them Syrians fleeing war, arrived in the bloc in 2015.