Following the Ceuta Crisis, Greece Calls for EU Mechanism to Temporarily Suspend Asylum Procedures

Developments in Ceuta have once again placed migration among the priorities on the European agenda.

Greece has called for discussions to begin within the EU on establishing a permanent mechanism that, in exceptional circumstances and in compliance with European and international law, would allow asylum procedures to be temporarily suspended and people entering illegally to be returned immediately. Top Channel correspondent Aleksandër Marku reports from Greece.

Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis’s initiative was presented today by Greek Minister of Migration and Asylum Thanos Plevris during an extraordinary meeting held by videoconference among the interior and migration ministers of EU member states.

Plevris said the proposal was based both on Greece’s experience in dealing with the Evros crisis in 2020 and on the recent events in Ceuta. He explained that the aim was to protect the EU from the use of migration flows as a tool while also respecting fundamental European values.

Expressing Greece’s support for Spain, the minister argued that such a European mechanism should be activated in exceptional circumstances when mass migrant arrivals are recorded. According to him, it should allow the temporary suspension of the processing of asylum applications and the return of people who entered illegally, with the aim of protecting the European asylum system.

The Greek minister also called for stronger protective measures at the EU’s external borders, an enhanced role for Frontex, and expanded cooperation with third countries. He stressed that effective cooperation could help significantly reduce migration flows.

In support of this position, Plevris cited the example of the Aegean islands, where, according to him, the number of arrivals during the first half of 2026 fell by more than 60%.

The latest UNHCR data show that 23,001 migrants and refugees had arrived in Greece by the end of July 2026. Of these, 18,569 entered via sea routes, while 4,432 crossed the land border. The figures remain significantly lower than in 2015, when Greece received more than 860,000 people.

This year, the largest increase was recorded along the route starting in Libya and ending in Crete and Gavdos, now the main entry point into Greece. These two areas recorded 8,552 arrivals in the first half of 2026 alone.