EPP backs suspension of asylum rights in response to ‘hybrid attacks’

The European People’s Party wants to allow migrants to be returned without their asylum claims being individually assessed in cases of “hybrid attacks” by third countries targeting an EU border, a controversial proposal likely to trigger political opposition. The European People’s Party (EPP) will call for the suspension of the right to apply for asylum in the EU in cases of “hybrid attacks”, where third countries facilitate large-scale migration with the aim of destabilising a European border. The controversial measure would allow migrant people to be sent back without an individual assessment of their circumstances, effectively resulting in “collective pushbacks” that are prohibited under current EU law. The measure could form part of the new “European Emergency Response Framework”, announced by European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen in her State of the Union speech, to tackle irregular arrivals. Some EU countries have already temporarily suspended the right to seek asylum and support the measure. However, the proposal has drawn criticism from left-wing politicians and migration experts. The EPP's call is part of a resolution due to be adopted on Tuesday at the EPP’s political assembly in Toulouse, according to several party sources. “There are some delegations against it, but the majority of the party is on board,” a senior EPP member told Euronews. In the text seen by Euronews, the EPP calls on member states to “adopt an additional protocol on asylum and migration authorising the refusal of entry or return without an individual asylum procedure for illegal migrants used in hybrid attacks.” The text cites the situation in Ceuta, where around 80,000 migrants irregularly entered at the end of July, with several thousand still on the streets of the Spanish exclave. The episode was described as a “hybrid attack and instrumentalisation of migrants” in a recent European Parliament resolution. “Similar cases require a response that goes beyond the current instruments designed to address migratory flows,” the resolution says. The EPP is the EU’s largest political family, and its proposals often shape legislation adopted by the European Commission and endorsed by the European Parliament. In the current legislature, the party has taken a tougher stance on migration, backing legislation to deport asylum seekers and irregular migrants to third countries with no connection to them. Last June, the EPP adopted another resolution urging the European Commission to limit the right to asylum “in cases of instrumentalisation” and when irregular migrants attempt to enter the EU from a third country deemed “safe”.